According to Salon.com, "The abortion was supposed to explain it all. The traumatizing ultrasound-guided termination of a patient's 13-week fetus set the stage for Abby Johnson's startling conversion from pro-choice warrior to antiabortion extremist. It was meant to resolve questions about why the 29-year-old resigned as director of Planned Parenthood's Bryan, Texas, clinic and joined forces with longtime foe Coalition for Life. Time and again on right-wing radio and TV shows, she passionately detailed how she had a sudden "change of heart" while assisting a physician who performed the procedure. But the revelatory abortion never took place, according to medical records obtained by Texas Monthly."


WOW!

In early November, the online magazine Salon reported that on September 27, the day after Johnson says she witnessed the ultrasound-guided abortion and had her epiphany, she appeared as a guest on the Bryan public radio program Fair and Feminist to discuss her work at the clinic. In the hour-long interview, Johnson gives an enthusiastic defense of the clinic and ridicules the 40 Days for Life protest. She doesn’t sound like someone who’d had a life-changing experience the previous day or who had soured on her employer’s mission.

If you remember earlier this year, I blogged ( to read click here) about Abby's shocking change from Director of Planned Parenthood in Bryan Texas to know being a spokesperson for Coalition for Life and other pro-life groups.
One of the show’s hosts, Shelly Blair, volunteered regularly at the clinic and considered Johnson to be a friend and mentor. The hardest thing to accept, Blair said later, was not Johnson’s announcement that she was now pro-life but her decision to join the Coalition. Johnson, Blair said, had long complained that the Coalition harassed patients and clinic workers and spread misinformation about Planned Parenthood. Blair recalled a party in the parking lot of Planned Parenthood, held just two weeks before Johnson quit, to boost morale on the opening day of the 40 Days vigil.

“Abby was so mad that she was screaming through the fence at them,” she recalled. “It’s just so strange, because now she’s saying all the things that they’ve always said. It’s like, how can you unlearn everything you know?”, according to Texas Monthly.

So, for someone who was blatantly being harassed by Coalition for Life, she was now representing them..hmmmm

According to Salon.com, "Broadsheet reported on Johnson's about-face in November, breaking news that the former "Employee of the Year" had recently been put on a performance review and that, curiously enough, she had appeared on a local radio show singing Planned Parenthood's praises on Sept. 27, the day after she claims the procedure took place. Now, Texas Monthly has followed up with additional reporting that casts further doubt on her story. Reporter Nate Blakeslee writes:

According to Planned Parenthood, there is no record of an ultrasound-guided abortion performed on September 26. The physician on duty told the organization that he did not use an ultrasound that day, nor did Johnson assist on any abortion procedure. ... It's difficult to imagine that Johnson simply got the date wrong; September 12 was the only other day that month that the clinic performed surgical abortions.

So, who is telling the Truth?

Postings on Johnson’s Facebook page, obtained by Texas Monthly, suggest an employee worn out by her job and feeling hurt, angry, and unappreciated—not one struggling with the morality of her profession. On September 24, two weeks before she resigned, she wrote, “So tired. Want a day off. Too busy. Blah.” Similar sentiments followed, along with expressions of dread over her coming disciplinary meeting in Houston. This is what she wrote on the night she quit:

Alright. Here’s the deal. I have been doing the work of two full time people for two years. Then, after I have been working my whole big butt off for them and prioritizing that company over my family, my friends and pretty much everything else in my life, they have the nerve to tell me that my job performance is “slipping.” WHAT???!!! That is crazy. Anyone that knows me knows how committed I was to that job. They obviously do not value me at all. So, I’m out and I feel really great about it!

According to Salon.com, "Johnson suggested that the Planned Parenthood clinic altered its records. It's a convenient claim, because how does one disprove it? Of course Johnson hasn't been able to prove it, either -- but that won't matter to her true believers, who have been quite willing to overlook earlier glaring inconsistencies in her story. Ultimately, facts are irrelevant when it comes to this story, which amounts to an antiabortion parable. When you believe in a fable's message, it doesn't matter whether it's fiction."

My Thoughts...

What are your thoughts? Who is telling the truth? Johnson? Planned Parenthood? What would make a Director of a Pro-choice organization up and quick a couple weeks after she is reprimanded for job performance? Is she playing Coalition for Life or Did she Play Planned Parenthood? What about the mysterious women and the 13-week old fetus?

To read more from the Texas Monthly, click here.

To read more from Salon.com, click here.