FAYETTEVILLE — Former Planned Parenthood executive Abby Johnson warned pro-life supporters to expect frequent calls to the police during the fall 40 Days for Life campaign outside the local Planned Parenthood clinic.
“This Planned Parenthood is going to freak out,” she told a crowd of about 100 during the campaign kickoff Sept. 21. “This is the first time they’ve had a public demonstration outside their facility and they’re going to freak out. … They’re going to call the cops. You’ll be constantly monitored. … They’re not going to know what to do with you.”
Johnson, who left her position as director of the Planned Parenthood office in Bryan, Texas, last year to join the pro-life movement, and Shawn Carney, who helped create 40 Days for Life, were guest speakers as northwest Arkansas supporters gathered to kick off the fall campaign.
The clinic was already closed for the day, but by the time the formal activities ended, a Fayetteville police officer had already stopped to check out the group as the result of a citizen complaint. Finding the complaint groundless, the officer was friendly with attendees and then drove away.
Volunteers hope to staff the location from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily until Halloween, the 40th day of the campaign. Fayetteville is one of 238 locations for the program that began three years ago. Carney said the first prayer vigil was intended as a one-time event. But as it ended, interest was growing across the country and his group began getting calls from around the country.
In Fayetteville, the campaign has moved from the Women’s Clinic on College Avenue where Dr. William Harrison, an outspoken abortion advocate, performed surgical abortions. Harrison, who died Sept. 24 from leukemia, closed his clinic this summer.
Johnson is not the only abortion worker to undergo a change of heart and join the pro-life movement — Carney said at least 35 former clinic workers have joined 40 Days for Life — but she may be the best known. She attributed with irony some of her speaking skill to excellent training she received from Planned Parenthood.
“God has a sense of humor,” she said.
The Fayetteville Planned Parenthood office, which provides medication abortions, is on Township Road. The 40 Days for Life participants will be positioned on the right-of-way between the strip center’s parking lot and the street.
Johnson called it an “awesome location,” certain to attract the attention of supporters and those who disagree. But she urged the group to continue their fight because “it’s not OK what goes on inside that clinic.”
The Fayetteville office contends it doesn’t do abortions, Johnson said, but, “the RU-486 pill (causes) an abortion and they’re doing them here, inside this clinic.”
Patients take four more pills at home and pass their babies at home, often alone and without support. No one inside Planned Parenthood supports them, she continued.
“The only thing they care about is getting that $450. … Once that money is collected, it’s out of their hands.” She added, “This organization (Planned Parenthood) is not interested in these women.”
Planned Parenthood, with 825 clinics nationwide, is the largest abortion provider in the country.
Both Carney and Johnson were careful not to vilify the clinic workers or patients. “They’re not bad people. I was not a bad person … just extremely misguided,” Johnson said.
She talked about watching ultrasound images of an abortion — images that convinced her she was wrong.
“Suddenly, that word ’choice’ didn’t ring true to me any more. I witnessed a murder, the taking of a human life … (I watched) a 13-week-old child lose its humanity” in the place it should be safest, its mother’s body, Johnson said.
Carney described modern culture as being “grossly confused” and said Planned Parenthood is the “climax of that confusion.”
He addressed the discomfort many people feel when they first actively campaign outside abortion clinics.
“You feel depression from confronting abortion where it takes place (but soon) you are given overwhelming peace.”
Pro-life supporters demonstrate “not because we want to make ourselves feel good or (be) self-righteous,” Carney continued, but to show people “no one loves these woman, these children, these clinic workers, more than Christ does.”
Planned Parenthood “sells lies” and works on fear and despair, he added. He urged the group to continue with their peaceful demonstrations. “Your prayers work.”
