Abby Johnson Quotes
I certainly never thought I would find myself walking into a pro-life office, and I never thought that I would one day be pro-life.
Johnson, Abby. Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey Across the Life Line. Tyndale House Publishers, 2010.
This was a variation of the famous Henry Clay quotation.
Churches are political organizations too and are subject to the forces of their membership. In the case of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1971 they passed resolutions to assure the right of a woman to have an abortion to protect her health. The position on abortion changed steadily thereafter to even pass Constitutional amendments to ban abortions except to save the life of the mother. See {614356},54122, {614358}, {614359}, {614360}, {614361} for the dynamic history of the change.
Portugal, a traditional Roman Catholic nation where the Church has always had great influence, had laws banning abortion. However, in a national referendum the Portuguese people voted overwhelming to allow abortion despite the Church’s stand. The Parliament then overwhelmingly passed a law legalizing abortion on demand up to the 10 the week of pregnancy. The President, though opposed personally to abortion signed the bill. This quotation illustrates a common occurrence in industrial democracies whereby politicians will not impose their personal moral views on the laws of society but may well have contrary personal views.
This is a wonderful example of a good rhetorical technique. He focuses the attention on the unborn by observing that all his opponents on this point have already been born. Of course, he and all his supporters on the point—those who are against abortion—have already been born also. So what would the unborn say? Well that no one could know nor can any one know if the unborn have any thoughts must less thoughts on the subject of abortion.
Abby Johnson is an American anti-abortion activist who previously worked at Planned Parenthood as a clinic director, but resigned in October 2009. She states that she resigned after watching an abortion on ultrasound. The veracity of her account and the details and motivation for her conversion have been challenged by investigative reporters, as medical records contradict some of her claims.
