busted
I think the ABBY JOHNSON HAS SEEEEN THE LIGHT saga is so hilarious, I needed to post it here.
It starts with rejoicing from the pro-life community! Abby Johnson, a Planned Parenthood clinic director, participated in an abortion procedure and it turned her pro-life! She quit her job and joined the Life Coalition in consequence! Hallelujah!!
....or did she?
Texas Monthly investigated her story and surprise surprise... it is wonderfully, flagrantly phony.
As everyone here probably already knows, abortion clinics are required to keep strict records and submit them to the state. Turns out there weren't any ultrasound-guided abortions performed in Johnson's clinic on the day she claims she participated in an abortion (September 26). But that's only the start of the discrepancies!
-Aaaand none of the patients on the 26th were more than 10 weeks pregnant. Johnson claims to have witnessed the termination of a 13-week fetus.
-Johnson claims the patient was a black woman. The only black patient seen Sept. 26 was six weeks pregnant.
-Maybe she got the date wrong? ...except the only other day abortions were performed that month was Sept. 12. A big part of her story involves the fact that she went on the radio the very next day singing PP's praises. That was Sept. 27:
The rollout of Abby Johnson as a culture-war celebrity got off to a rocky start. 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.
Johnson reported to Salon that she "considered backing out of the interview at the last minute but didn't because she was friends with one of the show's hosts."
-Additionally, the doctor stated that (unsurprisingly) he didn't ask and has never asked Ms. Johnson, the clinic director, to work the ultrasound machine during the abortion... maybe because she has no medical skills or qualifications? Um? and you have to be a trained tech to do that?
-She's also started some more far-reaching lies:
Other questions about Johnson’s credibility arose during our interview. She told me, for example, that there had never been any threats of violence against the Bryan clinic; however, Johnson herself received a series of threatening letters in 2007. “God will punish you for killing the innocent or we will,” read one. “You are not taking us seriously. You were at the clinic alone. Not very smart,” read another. In fact, the threats were taken so seriously that security cameras were installed at Johnson’s house, as she later acknowledged.
not like the facts will interest the pro-lifers at all, but it does make the whole thing loltastic.
As for why Johnson made up this ridiculous story, she'd apparently been having performance problems at work and was afraid she would be fired. She had a disciplinary review three days before her miraculous "revelation." Here's what she wrote on Facebook 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!
Texas Monthly notes that in that facebook announcement and comments "She never mentioned being pressured to increase abortions, having witnessed the ultrasound-guided procedure, or having suffered a moral crisis."
And now she's getting lots of money:
Carney’s efforts to find Johnson a new job were unsuccessful, but after her story went nationwide, Johnson didn’t need one. Carney helped her sign on with Ambassador Speakers Bureau, a Christian publicity agency, and the company began booking paid engagements for her. Her job became, in essence, being Abby Johnson. For her first booking, Johnson flew to New York to talk at a fundraiser for the pro-life group Expectant Mother Care.
so yeah, it's good to see the pro-life movement still sticking to its normal levels of gullibility, willful ignorance, and dishonesty.
[note: edited to correct for my misunderstanding re: dates]
It starts with rejoicing from the pro-life community! Abby Johnson, a Planned Parenthood clinic director, participated in an abortion procedure and it turned her pro-life! She quit her job and joined the Life Coalition in consequence! Hallelujah!!
....or did she?
Texas Monthly investigated her story and surprise surprise... it is wonderfully, flagrantly phony.
As everyone here probably already knows, abortion clinics are required to keep strict records and submit them to the state. Turns out there weren't any ultrasound-guided abortions performed in Johnson's clinic on the day she claims she participated in an abortion (September 26). But that's only the start of the discrepancies!
-Aaaand none of the patients on the 26th were more than 10 weeks pregnant. Johnson claims to have witnessed the termination of a 13-week fetus.
-Johnson claims the patient was a black woman. The only black patient seen Sept. 26 was six weeks pregnant.
-Maybe she got the date wrong? ...except the only other day abortions were performed that month was Sept. 12. A big part of her story involves the fact that she went on the radio the very next day singing PP's praises. That was Sept. 27:
The rollout of Abby Johnson as a culture-war celebrity got off to a rocky start. 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.
Johnson reported to Salon that she "considered backing out of the interview at the last minute but didn't because she was friends with one of the show's hosts."
-Additionally, the doctor stated that (unsurprisingly) he didn't ask and has never asked Ms. Johnson, the clinic director, to work the ultrasound machine during the abortion... maybe because she has no medical skills or qualifications? Um? and you have to be a trained tech to do that?
-She's also started some more far-reaching lies:
Other questions about Johnson’s credibility arose during our interview. She told me, for example, that there had never been any threats of violence against the Bryan clinic; however, Johnson herself received a series of threatening letters in 2007. “God will punish you for killing the innocent or we will,” read one. “You are not taking us seriously. You were at the clinic alone. Not very smart,” read another. In fact, the threats were taken so seriously that security cameras were installed at Johnson’s house, as she later acknowledged.
not like the facts will interest the pro-lifers at all, but it does make the whole thing loltastic.
As for why Johnson made up this ridiculous story, she'd apparently been having performance problems at work and was afraid she would be fired. She had a disciplinary review three days before her miraculous "revelation." Here's what she wrote on Facebook 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!
Texas Monthly notes that in that facebook announcement and comments "She never mentioned being pressured to increase abortions, having witnessed the ultrasound-guided procedure, or having suffered a moral crisis."
And now she's getting lots of money:
Carney’s efforts to find Johnson a new job were unsuccessful, but after her story went nationwide, Johnson didn’t need one. Carney helped her sign on with Ambassador Speakers Bureau, a Christian publicity agency, and the company began booking paid engagements for her. Her job became, in essence, being Abby Johnson. For her first booking, Johnson flew to New York to talk at a fundraiser for the pro-life group Expectant Mother Care.
so yeah, it's good to see the pro-life movement still sticking to its normal levels of gullibility, willful ignorance, and dishonesty.
[note: edited to correct for my misunderstanding re: dates]