In the run-up to this year’s March for Life in Washington, D.C., Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life activist, movingly described how and why former abortion workers have found redemption and forgiveness at the event.

This year’s March for Life in Washington, D.C. took place last Friday, as reported by SPUC. It is the largest event of its kind in the world.

Abby Johnson, the noted anti-abortion activist, has recalled the first time she attended the pro-life event, twelve years ago. In 2009, she had just quit her job with pro-abortion giant Planned Parenthood after witnessing “the barbaric reality” of abortion first-hand.

“Nothing prepared me for what I saw on the screen”, she remembers: “An unborn baby fighting back, desperate to move away from the suction… The last thing I saw was a spine twirling around in the mother’s womb before succumbing to the force of the suction.”

Attending March for Life for the first time, Johnson wasn’t sure what to expect.

“It didn’t exactly go the way I had expected. At that first March for Life, many people had heard my story… [of] walking out of the clinic. Women were coming up to me and they were literally falling on me crying and sharing their stories of abortion regret.”

“We are human too”

Referring to other self-termed “Quitters” of the abortion industry, Johnson said: “We are human, too. We make mistakes, some bigger than others. But so many of us have had the courage to walk away and recognise the destruction we were causing to women, to their children, and to their families.”

Since leaving her job at Planned Parenthood, Johnson has helped nearly 600 abortion workers quit the industry.

“The sisterhood we have formed through our shared experiences — many of them traumatic and heartbreaking — is an unbreakable bond and one that I hope many, many other abortion workers will join as they leave their jobs behind.”

Last year also saw the inaugural Quitters Ball in Dallas, Texas take place. “These workers have seen the depths of hell”, Johnson said. “I want to tell them their situations are not hopeless, that we understand what they are going through, and that we are here to help.”

Johnson’s own story was made into the 2019 film Unplanned. She later founded the non-profit organisation And Then There Were None (ATTWN), helping abortion workers escape the industry.

“It’s a special feeling to have walked away from our work at the abortion clinic”, explains Johnson.

“Finally on the right side”

Last Friday, former abortion workers marched with thousands of pro-lifers in Washington, D.C. “It feels good to know we are finally on the right side”, says Johnson.

“At every March for Life, I get the opportunity to say I’m sorry to the women who have abortions, that I’m so sorry for my work in the abortion clinic. And afterwards, I see the peace in the faces of the women listening.

“They just want someone to acknowledge their pain and see them. And I do. All of us former abortion workers walking in the March for Life do.”

Preserving the humanity of all

SPUC’s Michael Robinson, Executive Director (Public Affairs & Legal Services), said: “The bravery that it takes to come out publicly and repudiate the abortion industry, as well as relate the horrific experience of an abortion facility, should not be underestimated.

“These women have seen things that are almost beyond comprehension.

“As Abby Johnson and others have attested, what goes on inside abortion facilities is hellish and, indeed, traumatising.

“While to be pro-life means we actively seek to protect unborn children and their mothers, it also means that we should strive to preserve the humanity of all.”