In the prolife movement, there have been a number of dedicated and outspoken activists who are former employees of Planned Parenthood. Just recently, Live Action writer Nancy Flanders wrote an article about former Planned Parenthood clinic manager Sue Thayer. Abby Johnson and Ramona Tevino are former Planned Parenthood directors who wrote books about their experiences.
Yet there have been other workers who left Planned Parenthood and told their stories throughout the years. Lavonne Wilenken is one.
Lavonne Wilenken worked as a nurse practitioner at a Planned Parenthood clinic. She shares some anecdotes about her time at Planned Parenthood in the book Bad Choices: A Look inside Planned Parenthood by Douglas R Scott. This little-known 1992 book contains information about Planned Parenthood. Although dated, it has some interesting statistics, facts, and testimonies from Planned Parenthood patients and staff.
In one anecdote, Wilenken describes what happened when a teenage girl scheduled for an abortion changed her mind at the last minute:
Once when I was working in the family planning clinic where also the abortuary [abortion clinic] inhabited the same building, I was in a room with a counselor and a young woman. One of the family planning assistants came – burst in the room and said, “Please, you’ve got to come quick! She’s trying to back out of the procedure and everything is all ready!”
The counselor left hurriedly down the hall and I followed to see exactly what was going on and what I saw in the hall was the counselor, a 17-year-old girl and her aunt, dragging her into the room as she was hollering, “No, I don’t want to go! Please don’t make me! Please don’t make me do this! I really don’t want to do this!”
They very hurriedly shoved her in the room where the procedure was to take place and slammed the door and the counselor came out afterwards with a sort of a, a peaceful smiling look on his face, and I knew what had happened. I knew that they had aborted her against her will.
This startling allegation of reprehensible behavior on Planned Parenthood’s part should have received wider attention when it was reported. Forcing someone to have an abortion against their will is not only unethical, it is criminal – no one can legally force another person to endure any type of surgery, including abortion. Neither the parents nor the clinic workers had a right to abort a baby against the mother’s will.
I wonder what happened to that 17-year-old girl. Since the testimony was given in 1992, she would be middle-aged by now. Did she ever have any other children? If so, do they know they lost a sibling to Planned Parenthood? Did she suffer emotionally after her forced abortion? Is she suffering still?
And just how many more forced abortions have taken place at Planned Parenthood or other clinics across the country?
Lavonne Wilenken’s story is an example of some of Planned Parenthood’s dirty laundry that’s been swept under the rug. Perhaps pro-lifers are only scratching the surface when we discover and publicize abusive, coercive, and dangerous practices at abortion clinics.
Source: Douglas R Scott Bad Choices: a Look inside Planned Parenthood (Franklin, Tennessee: Legacy Communications, 1992) 154
