Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director who resigned after watching an abortion on an ultrasound and became an anti-abortion activist, said Friday’s March for Life feels different from the other seven marches she has attended.
The reason has everything to do with the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Johnson said on “The Laura Ingraham Show.” She said the atmosphere was different last year as well, when Vice President Mike Pence spoke in person.
“Even last year, it was just sort of a different feeling at the March for Life,” she said. “There was a feeling of hope that I hadn’t felt before, that maybe change would actually be made.”
President Donald Trump addressed the protesters with a live video message from the White House, becoming the first sitting president to do so.
Johnson, who was the 2008 employee of the year at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas, was disturbed that the image of the fetus on the ultrasound during the abortion procedure so closely resembled her own daughter.
After her conversion, she wrote two anti-abortion books and went on to run the anti-abortion ministry And Then There Were None, which seeks to help abortion clinic workers leave the industry, as she did.
It is more than just the psychological lift from Trump’s speech, Johnson said. She said that changes have been made. Participants at March for Life rallies during Barack Obama’s presidency had to fight against a feeling of futility, she added.
Related: March for Life 2018: ‘This Is Actually a Child Forming in the Womb’
“Now, we actually see policies being made. We see things being changed,” she said. “We see vocal support for the pro-life movement, what we’re doing. And President Trump has been able to get abortion in the media — get the media talking about it more than ever before.”
The 2018 March for Life comes at a time that the anti-abortion cause has momentum. Pro-life activists cheered the nomination and confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. Abortion opponents saw it as the fulfillment of a key campaign promise — and the reason many Christian conservatives backed Trump despite failings in his personal life.
In addition, a poll commissioned this month by the Catholic men’s group Knights of Columbus indicates that roughly three-quarters of Americans favor significant restrictions on abortion.
PoliZette senior writer Brendan Kirby can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.
(photo credit, homepage and article images: Abby Johnson [1], [2], CC BY-SA 2.0, by HazteOir.org).
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