I am surprised Tracy didn't mention the fact that Ms. Johnson has a daughter already and presumably had seen an ultrasound way before Sept 26. This whole thing seems very, very odd indeed.

I can only imagine how horrific that must be to witness. At eight weeks a fetus has arms, legs, toes, eyes, heartbeat, etc. and is very clearly a human child. Then in comes the ol' abortionist's scalpel, or vacuum cleaner, or whatever the sickos use, and into the bio-waste can goes another dead baby.

Good for Ms. Johnson. She did the right thing.

The issue I have with the anti-abortion stance isn't so much that they have an understandably difficult time with a difficult procedure, but that they wish to ban it from everyone. In a perfect world no child would be deformed, no mother would be unfit, and no pregnancy would be unplanned. Until we live in that world it's an idealogical fantasy to pretend abortion isn't a neccessary service, even if it is often unpleasant and disturbing. I support it because often the alternative is worse.

I have no problem with people who are against abortion however. Nobody will ever force these people to have abortions. I respect their opinions. My problem derives from the insistance of many of them to ban the procedure from everyone, often completely disregarding the consequences should their ban take effect.

Abby Johnson has every right to have a change of heart on the matter of abortion and I respect her decision. She has no right support organizations that would deny other woman that important choice.

As someone who's been lied about after leaving a job, I'm not willing to take PP's word for it either.

But you are, apparently.

Hypocritical much?

Imagine how the baby feels.

"I personally wouldn't murder somebody, but who am I to tell another person that they can't murder somebody? It's their body."

And here's an especially interesting quote from wicked_sprite: "She has no right support organizations that would deny other woman that important choice."

Really? She doesn't have the right to belong to pro-life organizations?

Don't worry, I'm sure the American "Civil LIberties" Union and Chairman Obama are working on a way to deny her that right as we speak.

This isn't conversion it's squeamishness.

Oh no, save the babies! Save the babies! Nevermind that inconvenient piece of complaining flesh between the tiny children and the light of day! Just tear that thing open, get it out of the way. Who cares what it thinks or feels?

Go back to Afghanistan where you belong, Taliban.

I had a response, but why would I bother? Clearly you're not the type to let facts or statistics get in your way. Keep up the good work.

that someone would have a sudden change in belief or feeling. In my own experience, one day I was eating animals, wearing them, visiting them in zoos and circuses and the next day I wasn't. What brought about that epiphany is complicated, but if her experience is anything like mine, she had been having some doubts for awhile, then pushing those doubts away because she had so much invested in her pro-choice life. I was a meat eater, loved the taste of certain animals, enjoyed wearing their skin, didn't want to have to change my beliefs or lifestyle, then finally, one thing clicked (a television talk show, of all things!!) and I made the connection. And it was that quick -- I had bacon for breakfast and by noon I was a vegetarian and have never eaten meat since -- nearly 30 years later.

I am staunchly pro-choice and believe that the vast majority of anti-choice activists are primarily anti-women and that their opposition to abortion is rooted in that misogyny, but I have no problem believing that someone can change their beliefs seemingly overnight.

There are anti-abortion activists who have a change of a heart and become pro-choice.

There are pro-choice activists who have a change of heart and become anti-abortion activists.

In general, conversions aren't that surprising (they happen in politics, religion), but they can make for great PR and sometimes-interesting narratives.

--

FYI: my descriptions of the two-groups was deliberate, because both descriptions accurately reflect the movement cores. Pro-choice activists believe the decision to carry a pregnancy to term should be made between a woman and her doctor. Anti-abortion activists work to end all abortions. Some anti-abortion activists may also be pro-life, but that's not a given and the term itself is vague (pro whose life and under what circumstances?).

The woman who was "Roe" is now a fundie anti-choice activist.

That said, I do not think individual conversions to either side are evidence of the rightness or wrongness of anything. One person changes their mind. The only thing shocking about it is that somebody changed their mind on a hot-button issue for any reason at all in either direction.

We like to believe that people on "our" side of a debate are all holding that position because they've reasoned it out with themselves fully. Not everyone has. Same's true for the opposite side. There are a lot of people in the world who don't really think anything through most of the time but still hold all kinds of fervent opinions.

...that she lives in a country that will permit her to decide what to do should she become pregnant again, rather than having Big Government make the decision for her. She should relish the fact that she has the freedom to make that choice.

The Republicans do still hate Big Government, don't they?

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/annual-report-4661.htm

Lets see, health center revenue was about $375 million (page 18). They don't breakdown how revenue from each service, so I will do a very conservative estimate.

In 2007, Planned Parenthood performed 305,310 abortions (page 9).

They probably got, what, $300 for each one (probably more, but I'll guess on the low side). So that is nearly $92 million.

Not exactly a "small" chunk of change, and makes up 25% of the money they actually "earn", rather than simply being given to them by the government or private donors.