The success of the pro-life film “Unplanned” has abortion activists scrambling to discredit Abby Johnson’s experiences in the abortion industry.
The film follows her true story as she worked for Planned Parenthood and eventually had a change of heart after watching an unborn baby be aborted during an ultrasound-guided abortion. It earned a surprising $6.1 million on opening weekend, and stayed in the top 10 in its second week at the box office.
Abortion activists have been trying to silence and discredit Johnson’s story ever since she left Planned Parenthood nine years ago. Their attempts to refute her have resurfaced in pro-abortion blogs and mainstream news outlets in the past few weeks.
On Monday, Johnson responded to the claims in an article at The Federalist:
The Texas Monthly published a story just a few months after I left Planned Parenthood entitled “The Convert.” It’s a biased article from a liberal publication that has been used as the sole source for every other abortion-supporting website to try and debunk my story, most of them outright claiming I never witnessed the ultrasound-guided abortion or that it simply never happened.
The article claims there were no 13-week abortions done that day, September 26, 2009. It claims the doctor didn’t use an ultrasound to guide his instruments. But that incorrect information comes only from a sheet of paper from Planned Parenthood, not from an official record from the Texas Department of Health, which would never, under any circumstances, release any reports regarding specific abortions performed at specific clinics, in order to protect patient privacy.
That sole piece of paper from Planned Parenthood is not even the correct form used to document abortions, Johnson said. As a former director and award-winner from Planned Parenthood, she should know. She oversaw and helped to document thousands of abortions while she worked there.
Johnson said the form also does not include information required by the state, including the type of anesthesia and any complications. She noted that the form also said the abortion was on a four-week-old unborn baby, though abortion facilities almost never perform abortions that early.
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“There is no way that would happen until five weeks of gestation at the very earliest, preferably six weeks, because you have to be able to visibly identify the chorionic villi—’tiny parts of the placenta that are formed from the fertilized egg’—which are usually not visibly present until six weeks,” Johnson explained.
The Texas Monthly article also questioned Johnson’s story because she did not quit immediately after watching the unborn baby be aborted. It noted that she even appeared on a local radio station to defend Planned Parenthood a few days later.
Johnson responded: “I didn’t watch the ultrasound-guided abortion and say to myself, ‘Well, now I am pro-life.’ I didn’t want to be pro-life. I hated the pro-life movement. I had been taught to hate them. I thought they hated me.”
She said she struggled for days to justify what she had watched – a baby get killed in its mother’s womb, but eventually she came to the conclusion that she could not.
Johnson said Planned Parenthood would have provided actual proof in court to contradict her if they had it.
“They would have already presented this evidence to the public and most certainly have taken further legal action,” she wrote. “But they haven’t, because they know they can’t. They can’t because my story is the truth.”
The film opened in theaters nationwide last week. Despite a media blackout, a ‘R’ rating designed to discourage viewers and little coverage outside conservative media circles, “Unplanned” opened in fourth place during its first weekend and it expanded to more movie theaters last weekend.
