On September 30, Abby Johnson spoke at Cornell at the invitation of the Young America’s Foundation and the Cornell Republicans. Her talk was entitled “Abortion is Murder.” Johnson had worked at an abortion clinic until October 6, 2009.
Johnson began working for Planned Parenthood while a student at Texas A&M. Although Johnson was raised by Christian parents in a conservative church congregation, when she became a college student, she began to take steps away from her faith to satisfy superficial desires. That included becoming involved with facilitating abortions for female students.
Johnson was attracted to Planned Parenthood because of its claim that its goal was to reduce the number of abortions and to serve low-income women. Planned Parenthood’s stated goal was “to make abortion safe, legal, and rare.” It was not an “abortion forward” organization. The pamphlets about abortion were kept behind the counter and had to be requested.
During the eight years at Planned Parenthood, Johnson started to see a change and began wondering if Planned Parenthood started to evolve or whether, as Johnson rose in its hierarchy, she began to see the organization’s purpose with greater clarity. She learned that Planned Parenthood had always had quotas requiring the sale of a certain minimum number of abortions to women. In contrast, there were no monthly quotas on the number of Pap smears, birth control pills, or STD testing that each clinic had to sell.
Toward the end of her employment, she was told that the monthly abortion quota was being doubled, and that if it were not met, Johnson would have to fire employees of her clinic; She was told to recruit abortion patients from low-income neighborhoods, putting up flyers offering low-cost abortions. Planned Parenthood started to advocate that low-income minority populations were better off having an abortion than having a baby. Johnson recalled that Margaret Sanger, the founder of the movement, was an advocate for eugenics, and the Planned Parenthood outreach took on an element of targeting certain ethnic groups. (It should be noted that in 2020, Planned Parenthood denounced Sanger for her views on eugenics and racism.)
Planned Parenthood’s clinic had a finite amount of Title XX funding to serve minority and immigrant women who did not qualify for Medicaid. However the clinic exhausted that funding by April, without any additional Title XX funding becoming available until the following October. Johnson proposed that Planned Parenthood reduce its fees during the months when these clients would have to pay out-of-pocket for its services, but its Board decided against such a fee reduction.
Planned Parenthood also participated in Title X family planning federal assistance administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). However, in 2019, the Trump Administration adopted a “gag order” regulation prohibiting these funds from being used to advocate for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or medical emergency. As a result, Planned Parenthood withdrew from that program.
Johnson criticizes Planned Parenthood for charging more for abortions occurring later in a pregnancy. “It is the same procedure. They can charge more, so they do.”
Johnson gave details about abortion procedures, and watching an ultrasound of an abortion led to her resigning from Planned Parenthood and becoming a pro-life advocate.
After Johnson left Planned Parenthood, they sued her, seeking a gag order to prevent her from sharing her story. Johnson now runs an organization, called “And Then There Were None”, to help other workers in the abortion industry to leave their jobs. Ninety-five percent of the people helped by her organization have diagnosable post-traumatic stress disorder. Eighteen percent of them attempt suicide.
Chemical abortions pose a greater danger to mothers because there is a higher chance of the products of conception remaining in the uterus.
Abortions At Cornell
In the 1960s, family planning services were too controversial for Cornell to provide to students. So, Cornell leased space in what was then called the Gannett Clinic building to Planned Parenthood to provide such services. In 1970, three years before Row v. Wade, the NY State Legislature amended its laws to make abortions legal in the state, resulting in women traveling to New York from states where abortions remained illegal.
Cornell has never provided abortion services on campus. Instead, CAPS provides students with counseling on their options. Cornell refers students wanting abortions to the local Planned Parenthood clinic. The Cornell Student Health Plan includes coverage of abortion costs.
The Weill Cornell Medical Practice, associated with the Medical School’s faculty in New York City, provides abortion services.
For many years, the Cornell Wolpe Center, which is a Cornell-owned building at 2148 O Street NW in the DuPont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC, rented out its ground floor, with a separate entrance, to an abortion clinic. As a result, the building experienced picketing and protests from pro-life groups.
Johnson’s talk provides an atypical stance and experience of the abortion industry. Pro Life advocates are a rarity on Cornell’s Campus and her perspective provokes further free speech and debate at Cornell.
