Arkansas is poised to be the first state in the country without a surgical abortion clinic, pro-life supporters were told July 26 in Little Rock.
A statewide pro-life event was organized by 18 different organizations to unify the movement with the goal of ending abortion in Arkansas. Organizers said they would like to see the only surgical abortion clinic closed in west Little Rock and then see Planned Parenthood, which offers chemical abortions, close its locations in Fayetteville and Little Rock.
Among the agencies supporting the event were the diocesan Respect Life Office, 40 Days for Life in Little Rock and Fayetteville, the Couple to Couple League of Central Arkansas and St. Joseph Helpers in Little Rock.
Nine other states also have only one surgical abortion clinic: Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming.
In the evening of July 26 about 400 people met at First Baptist Church in Little Rock for an interview-style presentation with Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood affiliate clinic director who now speaks nationwide about her conversion experience. Johnson is also converting to Catholicism.
The presentation was led by Shawn Carney, national campaign director of 40 Days for Life, who first met Johnson in 2000 when they both lived in Bryan/College Station, Texas. Johnson was volunteering for Planned Parenthood, and Carney was a college student who was praying outside the clinic.
“We were on opposite sides of the fence since we were 18 years old,” the 29-year-old Carney said.
Johnson said she considered herself pro-life, but she chose to get an abortion when she was in college (She had a second abortion after working for Planned Parenthood.)
On Oct. 5, 2009, Johnson changed the direction of her life when she walked into the offices for the Brazos Valley Coalition for Life where Carney was the director and confessed to him that she was planning to quit working at Planning Parenthood. She resigned the next day.
“I saw the most broken person in my life,” he said. “I saw a broken heart.”
Johnson, 31, said the decision to leave Planned Parenthood and work for the pro-life movement occurred after she assisted with an “ultrasound-guided abortion” and she could tell on the ultrasound that the unborn child was recoiling from the vacuum tube.
David Bereit, national director of 40 Days for Life, said Arkansas is at its “tipping point” where it is possible to see abortion outlawed in the state.
“This state will be the first. This is history in the making,” he said.
On July 26-27, about 120 clergy and pro-life leaders met for a strategy and brainstorming session to come up with ways abortion can be reduced or eliminated in the state. Patrice Wolfe, a member of the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock and a long-time pro-life supporter, said a more organized pro-life movement was created during a retreat at Subiaco Abbey in July 2010.
“We want to be the first state to be abortion-free,” said Wolfe, who first began praying outside the Little Rock abortion clinic about 27 years ago.
Danny Gunderman, a member of Christ the King Church in Little Rock, was chosen as the leader of the pro-life coalition.
For more information on the pro-life collaboration, e-mail ARlifeconnection@sbcglobal.net.
