Abby Johnson showed up to testify before the Texas Senate; Planned Parenthood refused

For reference:

Undercover video #1 (unedited)

Undercover video #2 (unedited)

Undercover video #3 

Just in: Undercover video #4:

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Our friend Abby Johnson, former Planned Parenthood clinic director, testified today in front of the Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services regarding the Planned Parenthood baby organ harvesting scandal.

All I can say is, this woman is fearless. Absolutely fearless, and committed to telling the truth, no matter where the chips may fall. She is my kind of woman.

Okay, this is a long hearing. It's over four hours long. I watched it all. If you can't take that kind of time, be sure to see Abby's part.

She enters at about 2 hours, 22 minutes into the video. Her specific statement to the committee begins at about 2 hours, 30 minutes. And at about the 3 hour, 22 minute mark, there are some tense moments as Planned Parenthood's attorney interrupts proceedings to come forward and enter Planned Parenthood's written testimony into the record. The chairman asked PP's attorney if she would be willing to testify; the attorney declined. The chairman had, at the beginning of the hearing, already made clear his disappointment at Planned Parenthood's refusal to participate in these important proceedings.

Testimony before the Texas Senate Committee 

on Health and Human Services

On July 17, I first posted on the Planned Parenthood/baby organ harvesting story, and I have watched all the unedited videos (edited and unedited) to date. I invited our pro-"choice" readers to discuss this issue, and so far not a single one has come forward. The silence is deafening, and that's never really happened here before.

Abortion supporters, where are you? We are respectful here, as you know, so please tell us what you think. And it's okay (and even freeing) if you want to admit that Planned Parenthood is doing something that is, in fact, indefensible.

Be courageous, like Abby Johnson. Let's talk about the truth of it.

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PS: WOW! Take one minute and eight seconds to watch this brilliant video explaining how PP double-dips its profits:

My interview with Abby Johnson!

Over the years, I have posted about Abby Johnson, the former director of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Texas who had a massive change of heart and became passionately pro-life. Her book, Unplanned: The dramatic true story of a former Planned Parenthood leader's eye-opening journey across the life line, is riveting. And like many of you, I could not put it down. Since then, I have linked her work on this blog often (including here and here), and I was thrilled to finally meet her in person last fall.

What a dynamic speaker! She was so well-received at the First Way Pregnancy Center banquet that night that First Way executive director Christine Accurso has invited her back to speak. If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Phoenix, you do not want to miss her talk, this Saturday, March 7, from 10:30 to 12:30, in Gilbert, Arizona.

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Abby has been asked a million questions, but these are some questions I've always wanted to ask her:

Q.  Abby, in several articles and in your book, Unplanned, you have beautifully expressed your own feelings about doing the work you did for Planned Parenthood and how you've grappled with things since you left. I’d like to hear more about how those around you felt when you were working at PP. For example, what did your parents think? How did they reconcile it with their Christians beliefs? And what advice would you give to those whose family members might be caught up working in the abortion industry today?


A.  My family is and always have been very prolife. I know that I am at this prolife point in my life in huge part to my praying parents. They never stopped praying and they never stopped believing that one day I would leave. I know there were times when they questioned God. But I think they kept going back to the scripture in Proverbs that talks about training your child up in the Lord. It doesn't say that they will never depart from His ways, but God promises that our children will come back to that foundation when they are older.

My husband was also prolife, which made things tense in our marriage at times. But I know he was also praying. He has told me before that he had confidence that I would one day leave. He says that he saw how much I genuinely cared for these women and that his prayer was that one day I would be able to see how taking the lives of their children was hurting them. He said that he knew once I made that connection, I would leave. And he was right.


Q.  Did you ever avoid telling people where you worked, or did you wear it as a badge of honor? If there was any discomfort in telling, was it because of your own unease or because you sensed that others might not approve?

A.  It was honestly a little bit of both. Internally, I was very proud of my work. But I just didn't want the hassle. I didn't want to have to defend what I did. I believed that what I did was right. But defending abortion is not an easy job. And many times, I just didn't want the fight.


Q.  If I had met you back in your PP days, what should I, a pro-lifer, have said to you? I know it’s a strange question, but I’d love to know the “right” thing to say if someone I meet informs me that she works at PP.

A.  I tell people that you should always speak the truth in love. But I think the most important part of that idea is actually listening more than you speak. Ask questions. "Why did you decide to work at Planned Parenthood? What do you love the most about your job? Are there any challenges?" I think what you will find is that many of these workers fall into two categories...

1. They don't really care about the politicized part of it at all. They just needed a job to pay the bills. 

Or

2. They have had abortions themselves and working in the industry is the easiest way for them to justify their own actions.

It's all about listening and asking genuine questions. It's not about being "right."



Q.  You worked often in the POC ("products of conception") room, counting and piecing together small body parts. Did you ever bring that home with you, or were you able to compartmentalize enough that you did not think of your work when you were at home?


Q.  Somehow, I was able to really keep that separate from my life outside of Planned Parenthood. I can't really explain how that work didn't bother me (really at all) except to say that when you are immersed in that type of evil, spiritual blindness is real.


Q.  Finally, I am so excited about your apostolate to abortion clinic workers and former clinic workers, And Then There Were None. Please tell us a little bit about your mission and what we can do to help support those courageous souls who wish to come out of the abortion industry once and for all.

A.  We are the only national ministry that offers comprehensive resources to abortion clinic workers. We have multiple ways that we can assist workers who want to leave their jobs. We provide professional resume writing, professional recruitment services, job training, one-on-one counseling and advisement, healing retreats, spiritual guidance and support, and limited financial assistance to help ease the burden after they leave their job inside the clinic.

We are working very hard to rehumanize the abortion clinic worker. I think for many years, we have looked at these people and blamed them for abortion. We have looked at them as our enemy. But they are not our enemy. Our enemy is sin. They are misguided sinners just like you and me.

I had someone say to me one time, "So what, you just think you are going to love these workers out of the abortion industry?" My reply was simple. "Yes. I absolutely believe we will. And we are." We have 141 former clinic workers who have come through our ministry. We feel like God has blessed us more than we could have ever imagined. But that's just how God is. He's in the business of conversion.

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Thank you Abby, for your courage and witness!

And again, if you are in the Phoenix area, don't miss her talk this Saturday! Tickets are priced at only $7 so that this event can be accessible to all.

If you are unable to attend, consider buying a ticket to donate to a medical student, as we certainly need those students to hear what Abby has to say. Email me at littlecatholicbubble@gmail.com for more details on how to get your ticket(s) to them. 

Quick Takes: Guess who I met?! (Take #6)

Late have I posted thee, Quick Takes...

1)   I have read a lot about discerning God's will over the years, and I've even written about it myself. But this piece by Peter Kreeft is the best I've seen yet:

Discernment

Kreeft gives us five principles and six clues to discern the correct path when we are in doubt. Check this out:

Here is a sixth clue. If God has one right choice in everything you do, then you can't draw any line. That means that God wants you to know which room to clean first, the kitchen or the bedroom, and which dish to pick up first, the plate or the saucer. You see, if you carry out this principle's logical implications, it shows itself to be ridiculous, unlivable, and certainly not the kind of life God wants for us—the kind described in the Bible and the lives of the saints. 

Clue number six is the principle that many diverse things are good; that good is plural. Even for the same person, there are often two or more choices that are both good. Good is kaleidoscopic. Many roads are right. The road to the beach is right and the road to the mountains is right, for God awaits us in both places. Goodness is multicolored. Only pure evil lacks color and variety. In hell there is no color, no individuality. Souls are melted down like lead, or chewed up together in Satan's mouth. The two most uniform places on earth are prisons and armies, not the church. 

Take a specific instance where different choices are both equally good. Take married sex. As long as you stay within God's law—no adultery, no cruelty, no egotism, no unnatural acts, as, for example, contraception—anything goes. Use your imagination. Is there one and only one way God wants you to make love to your spouse? What a silly question! Yet making love to your spouse is a great good, and God's will. He wants you to decide to be tender or wild, moving or still, loud or quiet, so that your spouse knows it's you, not anyone else, not some book who's deciding.

Read it all here, and stop fretting about what to do!



2)   The press and social media have been abuzz with the tragic story of 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, who is suffering from a devastating cancer and is set to commit physician-assisted suicide in just a few days. This poignant response to Brittany comes from another young woman who is also dying of cancer:

Dear Brittany: Why We Don’t Have To Be So Afraid of Dying & Suffering 

that We Choose Suicide

Please pray for all involved, and please remember that the "right to die" eventually becomes the "duty to die". Lord, have mercy.


3)  A while back, I began to press my friend Jenni (mother of nine, longtime blogger) to write her husband's vasectomy reversal story. She was gracious enough to give in to my pestering, and the result is here:

The Reversal 

Jenni and her husband are not the only couple I know to have undergone a reversal of either a vasectomy or a tubal ligation. Although the Church does not require reversal for those who repent of the sin of sterilization, it's an incredibly healing and beautiful act for those who can take that step. And God willing, it often ends in the gift of more children.

Get Jenni's blog, Circling Jericho, on your blog roll or reading list; her writing is beautiful and she keeps it real, all the time

4)  "When did female empowerment become female infantilization?"

Yeah, that's what I'd like to know!

"Women once were encouraged to be strong and independent, to brush aside insensitive words and actions and to emerge stronger. But now, politicians, pundits, even celebrities are feeding an outrage machine by telling women they should be offended by anything and everything."

And as a woman, that offends me! This is dead on:

Feminist Hysteria is Causing the Infantilization of Women

If I were a feminist... well, I am a classical feminist, but if I were a feminist as manifested today, I would feel weak and frightened and threatened by every word spoken or act taken that did not agree with my very narrow worldview. I would feel like a victim at every turn, to the point of not being able to hear someone say "bossy" without starting a national movement to eradicate the word, and the seemingly innocuous acronym "TMI" would assault my delicate ears as a personal affront (read the article; this is for real). Goodness, I would be so helpless that I'd be reduced to forcing others buy my contraception for me (if I used it, which I don't), because it's too tough to walk to the Walgreens on the corner and use my own money to buy it, and it's unthinkable to even suggest that my lazy boyfriend/partner/husband get off the couch and pay for the contraception himself.

I'm glad I'm not a modern-day feminist because I prefer to be strong, competent, and independent. And all grown up.



5)  I'm pretty sure I'm a crack cocaine Words With Friends addict. (Sorry, I get those two things confused.)



6) So, I just got home from the most amazing evening! Five hundred of us gathered to support 1st Way Pregnancy Center and to hear this wise and beautiful woman speak:

Shameless picture-dropping

Abby Johnson, when I read your book and even posted about it, never did I imagine I would one day call you a friend. You are a gifted speaker, and honestly, you could be a stand-up comedienne with your perfectly timed comic relief in the midst of an incredibly delicate subject. You had us rolling in laughter -- and shedding a few tears as well. Someone on Facebook said tonight that she could have listened to you all night. I concur. Yes, I'm all fan-girly right now. But honestly folks, there is a reason that the abortion industry is very, very afraid of this woman. Abby, keep kicking the devil's butt. You were made for this.


7)  And maybe someone out there was made for little Jesse.... He needs parents, and perhaps they are reading this right now:

Click my picture for more info!

Jesse is four years old and is blind. He had a difficult start in life, but is doing well now. From his profile page:

He was abandoned at the gates of his orphanage when he was 9 months old. His blindness was caused by an untreated eye infection, and he was so ill he was sent to a palliative care home to die. He arrived a very sick and frightened little boy but was nursed back to health and given the opportunity to gain confidence and trust others around him. He is currently healthy with no further medical problems but is delayed in some areas of his development such as walking and feeding himself.

Read more about Jesse here, and please pray for this precious child to find a family of his own.

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Have a great weekend everyone, and thanks to Jen for hosting!

The Pill: Masking vs. Healing

On the night of my last full day on Facebook (yep, I quit it!), I jumped into (and immediately out of) a contentious debate on Abby Johnson's page. I only left one comment and then scurried away forever, but I had to get in that word.

Abby, former Planned Parenthood director and author of Unplanned, had reminded her (mostly pro-life) readers that not only can the Pill act as an abortifacient, but its routine use for treating menstrual disorders and other pathologies is ill-advised and even dangerous to a woman's health (the Pill can cause life-threatening conditions and is a Group 1 carcinogen according to the World Health Organization). Abby went on to say that there are always better means of addressing women's health issues, including treatments offered through NaPro Technology*.

Several commenters went into attack mode then, defending the use of the Pill for treating all kinds of female problems. They simply could not live without the Pill, they said, to get relief from their endometriosis, menstrual dysfunction, debilitating pain from ovarian cysts, etc. These pro-life women were angry, and they were standing by their Pill.

The quick comment I added to the thread simply reiterated Abby's point. The Pill only masks symptoms, it doesn't address or cure the underlying pathology. It doesn't restore a woman's health. Women who have disorders of the reproductive organs and cycle, I wrote, should look to NaPro or other medical interventions to identify and actually fix their disorders.

I want to be clear: There is nothing inherently immoral about taking the Pill to ease the symptoms of a disorder. But while swallowing a pill to cover up symptoms is easy, women are left living with the same pathology in the end. By contrast, curing the disease or addressing the disorder at its root is much more difficult: It requires more personal care, more thought, more individual strategy, and often tedious, time-consuming work -- lab work, months of hormone panels, even surgery. But the end result is restored health and wholeness.

The choice seems obvious, but sadly most women don't get this choice, as these days the Pill seems to be the only tool in most doctors' toolboxes.

I used to talk a lot about this sort of thing when my audience and interest was largely the Catholic infertility bloggers (man, do they know a lot about true reproductive health, women's issues, fertility, and NaPro!), but up until now I never thought about how this concept of masking vs. healing the disorders of the body applies to how the Church deals with the whole human person, body and soul.

We've talked about the physical, but it's true of the emotional and spiritual planes, too, isn't it? We love the quick fix to mask our existential pain, pleasure-seeking to make us forget our despair and loneliness, the avoidance of suffering at all costs. Masking the pain seems so much easier than working to fix the underlying problems in our fallen, sinful selves, and for a while it is easier. But as with the Pill, we are ultimately left with the same pathology in the end, only this time it's our soul that remains sick.

The Church's approach is so different from the world's! The Church wants to heal, not mask, and to restore integrity of body and soul. To walk the way of Christ is to take the long view and the narrow road (with a cross on one's back). It's tedious to set things right, it's laborious to make things work according to their nature, and it's painful to bring order out of disorder. It takes heroic virtue and sacrificial love fueled by the grace of the Sacraments, and it is the work of a lifetime.

Christ, the Divine Physician, warns that the process will hurt, but that in the end, we will be completely healed, whole and holy.

Body and soul, I'll take the real cure over a mask any day.

Jesus Christ, the Divine Physician

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*Aesthetically speaking, NaPro has the worst website, painful to the eyes, and I keep praying that someone will make it attractive and appealing. Even the best product or service in the world needs to be presented beautifully in order to be well-received! Sigh. That said, please don't let the schlockiness of the website fool or deter you. NaPro is legitimate and effective modern medicine. 

Laughing at dead babies and the avenging conscience

A few weeks ago, I read a disturbing blog post by Abby Johnson, former director of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic and author of the book, UnPlanned.

She recounts her early experiences in the clinic:

It took a few weeks before I got the alarm code to our clinic. I guess it takes that long for them to trust you. I remember getting the code and feeling shocked. The code was 2229. That seems innocent…until they told me what it spelled out…BABY. Really. Wow. We were really joking about that…our alarm code was mocking the murder of children. 

A few weeks later I was introduced to our freezer in the POC (products of conception) lab. This was the freezer that held the fetal tissue until the biohazard truck came for disposal. I found out the name for that freezer…the nursery. Again, that was a joke. How had that become a joke? 

A few days later I learned the password to our phone system…2229…BABY. 

A couple years later I remember walking in on my supervisor making jokes with the abortionist and another employee in that same POC lab. They were joking about how the fetal tissue floating in this dish looked like bar-b-que. Did I hear that right? Did they really just say that? Then one of them said, “I actually think this part looks like strawberry jam.” I turned around and walked out without saying a word. I felt sick to my stomach. How did that conversation begin? How could they say that? Was it enough to make me leave? No. I was one of them now. I am drenched in the evil of this place.

Later, she joined in their ghoulish humor:

About a year before I left, the Coalition for Life group had moved in next door to our clinic. We joked about sending them a “welcome to the neighborhood” gift. Maybe we should send them cookies in the shape of babies with red icing on them that resembles blood. We laughed. We thought we were so witty. It was not wit. 

I could go on and on. I look back now and wonder how I could let my mind become so numb to something so terrible.

Abby's post was remarkable to me, because just days earlier I had read an eerily similar account from another former abortion clinic worker, Jewels Green:

Even the macabre became commonplace. The gallows humor I’d seen in movies about medical staff that work around disease and death day in and day out was right at home in an abortion clinic. 

I vividly remember the cleaning lady who quit after finding a foot in the drain of the one of the sinks in the autoclave room (where the medical instruments were cleaned and sterilized after abortions) and how we all laughed and joked about it in the staff lounge for days and weeks afterward. 

When the power went out one time for hours and we were all explicitly instructed NOT to open the freezer where all of the medical waste was stored (read: dead baby parts in bio-hazard bags) but inevitably, someone did open that freezer and I will never, ever forget the stench of decaying human flesh for as long as I live —but we all laughed as we gagged and joked how at least “they” had it better in that non-functioning freezer because at least they couldn’t smell it. 

[I]n my heart I always knew it was wrong. All of it was wrong….

Horrifying as their stories are, it makes sense that they joked about what they were doing, to the point of mocking the dead babies themselves. For one to cooperate in an unthinkable evil, one must assuage the avenging conscience in some way or another.

Professor J. Budziszewski discusses the conscience -- and the revenge of conscience -- in his book, What We Can't Not Know (which I reviewed here).

The human conscience operates in three modes:

In the cautionary mode, the conscience acts as teacher:  "I shouldn't do that; it's wrong."
In the accusatory mode, the conscience acts as judge: "I should never have done that; it was wrong."
In the avenging mode, the conscience acts as executioner. We shall see how that works in a moment.

The "Five Furies" of conscience that come into play when we transgress the natural law (i.e., the universal moral law) are something we can all grasp:

1. Remorse
2. Confession
3. Atonement
4. Reconciliation
5. Justification

Professor B describes the rightly ordered way that the guilty conscience responds to the Five Furies (emphases mine):

The normal outlet of remorse is to flee from wrong; of the need for confession, to admit what one has done; of atonement, to pay the debt; of reconciliation, to restore the bonds one has broken; and of justification, to get back in the right.

However, if the guilty party does not respond to the Furies in rightly ordered ways and return to moral goodness, the Furies don't just suddenly go away (emphases mine):

But if the furies are denied their payment in wonted coin, they exact it in whatever coin comes nearest, driving the wrongdoer's life yet further out of kilter. We flee not from wrong, but from thinking about it. We compulsively confess every detail of our story, except the moral. We punish ourselves again and again, offering every sacrifice except the one demanded. We simulate the restoration of broken intimacy, by seeking companions as guilty as ourselves. And we seek not to become just, but to justify ourselves.

All the furies collude. Each reinforces the others, not only in the individual, but in the social group.    (pp. 150- 151)

In the buildings where women's wombs were forcibly opened and their living babies were shredded and dismembered and thrown out with the trash:

"We laughed. We thought we were so witty."
"We all laughed and joked about it for days and weeks afterward."
"We all laughed as we gagged and joked."

"In my heart I always knew it was wrong. All of it was wrong."
"I look back now and wonder how I could let my mind become so numb to something so terrible."

Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil. That road goes down and down.    -- G.K. Chesterton

Praise God for the gift of the avenging conscience. For to be pursued by the Five Furies, even to the very edge of the pit of hell itself, is a severe mercy given by a loving God Who will use drastic means to call us back to Himself.







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Random thoughts...

Just sorta thinking out loud here. (Is this like a "Quick Takes"??)

1. No "pro-choicers" -- not one -- commented on this post. They debate and march and legislate for this one specific "choice" and yet they will not look and defend what they advocate? Perhaps they did watch, but could not defend it? I ask that any "pro-choicer" reading this take four minutes to watch the entire video, and then defend what you see. I hear only crickets so far....

2. There is breaking video today of a Planned Parenthood clinic aiding and abetting underage sex trafficking. I guess this should be shocking, but it's simply the latest in a long line of atrocities exposed by the brave Lila Rose at Live Action. I thought feminists were supposed to care about women and children, so where is the outrage? And where is the mainstream media?

3. A question for "pro-choicers": Have any of you read Abby Johnson's book, Unplanned, yet? If so, I would love your thoughts. Do you think she was fair to your side? I was actually surprised by how gracious she was to her Planned Parenthood colleagues, especially considering the ending scenes.

4. How had I never heard of the Elliot Institute and its work before before yesterday? It's a wealth of resources! I found this page on forced abortions to be particularly important considering discussions we've had on this blog about whether or not abortion is freely chosen in America. Anyone ("pro-choice" or pro-life) who cares about women should read that link. The more I think about it, the more I want to bring that aspect of abortion to the forefront. Nobody seems to pay much attention to it.

5. On this post we had an interesting discussion about some highly offensive "pro-choice" protesters at the San Francisco March for Life. One comment came from a new reader, Demrie, who said this:

I was on that side not so long ago. I attended Marches. I held up pro-choice signs. I enjoyed the party-like atmosphere created by such outlandish and extravagant people. But as I got to know many of them, I discovered nearly all of them to be lost souls with such damage lives they have turned to living in the moment and using shock value to get attention. It wasn't even about the causes they protested or supported: it was about dancing on the edge to see how far they could go before they fell off. I am going through my own struggles now as I've not only returned to my Christian roots, but am going through RCIA to become Catholic which has greatly offended family and friends. 

Dear Demrie has started her own blog, and I hope you will go and welcome her at A Woman's Catholic Journey. I think you will find her story quite compelling and heart wrenching, and I pray that our blogger community can be a support to her as she goes through the RCIA process.

6. Miss Gwen, what did you think of the post I wrote for you? I promise I'm not hurt that you didn't comment. (Okay, I'm a little hurt!!)  ;)   **Update: Christina pointed out that Miss Gwen did comment! Thanks Miss Gwen, and sorry for the mistake! (Refer to #7 for more about my mistakes, ha ha!)


7. Blog stuff: I am in the "something's gotta give" place in my daily life. I am reading all the blogs, but I have not commented as much as I'd like to. I hope no one is offended if I am not modeling good blogger etiquette anymore. Forgive?? And, I probably don't say this often enough: If you ever see that I have misrepresented Church teaching, please bring it to my attention (my email is at the bottom of this page), and I will correct my mistake as soon as possible. I would also like to thank the people who have gently chastised me behind the scenes when I have not been as charitable on this blog as I should be. I always welcome correction, even though it smarts a bit at first. Chances are, I will agree with you and make a change.


(Oh my goodness, it ended up being seven random thoughts! I think I just did my first "Quick Takes" by default! And it's not even Friday!)

The power of a nun in a habit

Power is a secular value, and many spend their lives chasing after it in one form or another. Women in particular are told that the key to ensuring our own empowerment is "reproductive rights" --  i.e., the right to abort our unborn children.

But what is true power, and where is its source?

Who possesses real power?

Like so many of you, I have been engrossed in Abby Johnson's book, Unplanned, for a few days now. I read a chapter or two whenever I can steal a quiet moment, and every page has compelled and educated me in surprising ways. However, there was one scene in Chapter 9 that stopped me in my tracks.

One day, as she worked as the director of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, Abby heard a coworker gasp. She went to investigate:

I walked over to the window to look, and soon several of us were gawking out the window. The temperature was near 100 degrees that day, yet there in the hot sun was a nun dressed in a heavy, dark brown habit that swept the ground. Her head and hair were completely covered so that only her face showed, a face lifted toward heaven, eyes closed, clearly praying. Believe it or not, I'd never seen a nun in full habit before.

.... 

"Her face looks so sweet," said one of our clinic workers. "But anguished." There was an awkward silence. Then, one of our clients, who had just had an abortion, was escorted out the door and to her car by one of our volunteers. Our eyes were glued to the nun as, her eyes fixed on the client, she moved from the center of the driveway to the side, making room for the client to pull out of the drive. And then she began to weep. She fell to her knees and wept with with such grief, such genuine personal pain, that I couldn't help but think to myself, She feels something far deeper than I ever will. She is honestly pained. This is real for her -- this grief at knowing that client had an abortion. A sense of shame washed over me. I tried to shake it off but couldn't get past the fact that a nun was grieving over what was happening inside my clinic.

....

Several of our clinic staff were Catholic, but even those of us who weren't sensed a shared discomfort, as if we all felt embarrassed or ashamed. We tried to get back to work, but every few minutes someone would look out the window and offer an update on the sister, like, "She's still weeping," or "Look, one of the pro-lifers is consoling her now." It was agony just knowing she was out there.

Sister Marie Bernadette became a presence at the clinic on abortion days:

The truth was, the sister's simple, prayerful presence bothered most of us, Catholic, ex-Catholic, Protestant, and unchurched alike, as if she somehow represented our consciences. 

....

Over time we found ways to tease ourselves about the "power" of Sister Marie Bernadette as we came to realize we all avoided going outside when she was present. I found it eerie that her presence seemed to pervade the entire clinic every time she showed up at the fence.

Her simple presence always reminded me of confession.

And this from a non-Catholic abortion clinic director.

All because of a nun in a habit.

I didn't grow up seeing nuns in habits, and so when they began to permeate my world as an adult, I was moved, enchanted and... quieted. The religious habit, like the cross, is a sign of contradiction. It's a sign of poverty, chastity and obedience in a world which values money, sex and power. It's a sign of prayer, humility, and God's grace. It's a wedding gown adorning the brides of Christ.

Ultimately, the habit is a sign of love, which is the source of true power and which is irresistible. Instinctively, the ladies at the abortion clinic understood that. All worldly power -- financial, sexual, academic, political or otherwise -- is rendered impotent in love's presence.

The remarkable, joyful footnote to this story is that Abby Johnson and her family are now preparing to enter the Catholic Church.

Here's to the power of a nun in a habit!



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