Former abortion workers often say one of the worst parts of their job was dealing with the torn apart remains of aborted babies. Many recall examining the aftermath of abortion procedures to identify all the body parts of the child. This was important, because an arm, leg, or other body part left behind could cause the woman to suffer a dangerous infection. In another Live Action article, former abortion workers Kathy Sparks, Marianne Anderson, and Sue Thayer describe seeing and handling the bodies of aborted children. More recently, Live Action produced a video of former Planned Parenthood employee Marianne Anderson, who also described what she witnessed:
In a 2015 Facebook post, former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson wrote about her time in the POC (“products of conception”) room, dealing with aborted babies.
Pro-life activist Abby Johnson was once the director of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Texas. She worked in this facility for eight years, and was even named “Employee of the Year” in 2008. During her time as an abortion worker, she trained employees and sold abortions to women. She also saw the bodies of countless aborted babies – yet seeing the dead children did not change her mind about abortion.
But in 2009, she witnessed an abortion in real time under ultrasound guidance, and the sight of the baby trying to get away and being torn apart by the abortion instruments troubled her so deeply that she eventually left her job and became pro-life. You can read her gripping account of the ultrasound-guided abortion here.
Speaking of her time in the abortion industry, Johnson said:
When I worked at Planned Parenthood, I was trained to be a POC technician. POC stands for “Products of Conception.” Sometimes, if the staff were feeling funny, we would say that it stood for “Pieces of Children.”
Though this “joke” could be seen as mocking the words of pro-lifers, the macabre humor implies that workers were aware, at least on some level, that the “products” they were destroying were actually children.
Johnson goes on:
Inside every abortion clinic across the country, someone is tasked to be the POC technician. Their job is to take everything suctioned out of the uterus during an abortion and reassemble the parts of the baby. We did this to ensure that the uterus was empty of all fetal parts. If something was left, it could create a potentially fatal infection for the woman.
Johnson then talks about her emotional reaction:
You may read this and say, “How could she do this?” The simple and truthful answer is…I don’t know. The only thing I can say is that spiritual blindness is VERY real.
You may say, “I can’t imagine.” No, I assure you that you can’t. You can’t imagine something so gruesome unless you have actually done it.
You may say, “I bet they have nightmares.” Yes, “they” do. Nightmares especially come after you leave the industry.
Johnson is still emotionally troubled by what she witnessed in the abortion clinic. But she holds onto the forgiveness she says she’s found in Jesus:
“How can I live with myself” is something you may ask. Well, that’s simple. Because I am forgiven. I am not “hell bound” or any of the other things thrown at me by many prolifers. My sins are forgiven. My slate is clean.
I humbly ask that you sincerely pray for those who have left the abortion industry. Our wounds are deep and many of our scars remain. But NOT ONE person is beyond the reach of Christ.
Johnson’s testimony shows how truly evil the abortion industry is, and how hardened abortion workers must be in order to keep working in those facilities. It also reveals how emotionally hard it is for workers who leave to come to terms with what they’ve done and participated in. The emotional trauma that comes with leaving and facing one’s past actions should lead us to respect former abortion workers who tell their stories and hope for healing for all who leave the abortion business.
