Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey across the Life Line (Focus on the Family Books) [Paperback]

Abby Johnson (Author), Cindy Lambert (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2011 | Series: Focus on the Family Books

Retailers Choice Award winner, 2012
Abby Johnson quit her job in October 2009. That simple act became a national news story because Abby was the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas who, after participating in an actual abortion procedure for the first time, walked down the street to join the Coalition for Life. Unplanned is a heart-stopping personal drama of life-and-death encounters, a courtroom battle, and spiritual transformation that speaks hope and compassion into the political controversy that surrounds this issue. Telling Abby’s story from both sides of the abortion clinic property line, this book is a must-read for anyone who cares about the life versus rights debate and helping women who face crisis pregnancies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

When Johnson quit her job as the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas, the media went wild; lawsuits were filed; prolife advocates rejoiced. Now this former clinic director reveals the details of her dramatic move from abortion rights advocate to "the right side of the fence" and the prolife movement. Johnson began as a volunteer, moving through the ranks until becoming director of the Bryan, Tex., clinic. Then she witnessed an ultrasound-guided abortion, and she changed. "I was taking a new stand, beginning a new life," she says of her move to the other side. This emotional account reveals Johnson's remarkable journey through prochoice thinking, two abortions, her love/hate relationship with prolife advocates outside the clinic, and her eventual understanding of abortion. Prolife advocates will salivate over her story, abortion rights advocates will be skeptical,but those who oppose abortion will find inspiration, education, and emotion. Johnson offers a well-planned, well-written account that will touch nerves on both sides of the issue. (Jan.) --Publishers Weekly Bookline, December 22, 2011 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

“As I took the ultrasound probe in hand, I could not have imagined how the next ten minutes would shake the foundation of my values and change the course of my life.”
Abby Johnson joined Planned Parenthood as a college student because she wanted to help women in crisis—a goal she believed the organization shared. As she rose through the ranks to become a clinic director, however, things started to shift. Finances grew tighter, clinic practices changed, and Abby became increasingly unsettled about what she was being asked to do. But it wasn’t until she helped perform an actual abortion procedure that Abby fully realized what she’d been a part of all those years.
In the pages of Unplanned, you’ll also discover:

• What Abby found so attractive about the mission and goals of Planned Parenthood
• The personal secret that Abby had kept buried for years
• The things she’d believed and told patients that she discovered not to be true
• An insider’s perspective on Planned Parenthood’s practices as well as the heartfelt but misguided efforts of some radical antiabortion activists
• The courage and resilience she’s seen on both sides of the fence—from staff members to clients in crisis to prayerful volunteers

A compelling story of crisis and change, Unplanned is also a reminder of how grace finds us in unlikely places, and how we can all reach out with love to those who stand on opposing sides.
Abby Johnson holds a B.S. in psychology from Texas A&M University and an M.A. in counseling from Sam Houston State University. She was hired by Planned Parenthood in 2005 and progressed to the position of community services director and health educator, where she served as liaison between the community and Planned Parenthood as media correspondent. Later promoted to health center director, Johnson ran both the family planning and abortion programs. In 2009 she left Planned Parenthood and joined the local Coalition for Life as a volunteer. She continues her volunteer activities and now works on projects with the national 40 Days for Life campaign. She and her husband, Doug, have a young daughter and live in Texas.
Cindy Lambert, vice president and associate publisher at Zondervan, is a veteran of the bookselling industry. For nearly two decades she owned an award-winning bookstore before expanding into leadership roles in distribution, editorial, and publishing in such companies as Ingram, Simon & Schuster, and Zondervan. As a speaker Cindy has addressed audiences in publishing and bookselling conferences as well as churches and retreats. She and her husband, Dave, have six children and seven grandchildren, and live in Michigan. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Tyndale Momentum (October 20, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1414339402
• ISBN-13: 978-1414339405
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.7 x 8.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (391 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,579 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies > Abortion & Birth Control

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

151 of 175 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic! Amazing! Moving! A Must Read January 11, 2011

By John Weingarten

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've rarely been so riveted or so moved by a book. All I can say is everyone who cares about life should read this book. Everyone who considers themselves pro-choice should read this book. Everyone who thinks they understand what Planned Parenthood's agenda is should read this book. Everyone who has been hurt by past abortions or is considering abortion should read this book.

Abby Johnson is a modern-day hero. For that reason alone--to read the story of person willing to walk away from an eight-year career, because it's "the right thing to do," now knowing where her heart and God were leading her, makes the book worth the read.

You'll learn why those other modern-day heroes, the pro-life prayer volunteers and sidewalk counselors, particularly those involved in the organizations the author cites as a major key to her conversion--The Coalition for Life and 40 Days for Life--deserve special recognition. Through constant peaceful vigil, prayer, and love outside her Planned Parenthood facility (and hundreds of others) over eight years from 2001 to 2009, she came to learn the truth.

Having been involved in 40 Days for Life campaigns in our community, first as a prayer volunteer, and now as a local campaign director, I've seen firsthand the power of those 40 day campaigns Abby writes about in her book. Abby writes about how she witnessed babies saved from abortions through these campaigns (though while she was working for Planned Parenthood, she viewed the sidewalk counselors "on the other side of the fence" as the enemy--for the most part).

How amazing it was to read about the long journey Abby took and her perspective on the pro-lifers on the other side of the fence. I also think this book will become a classic, in part, for the back story about what will surely go down in history as one of the most important parts of today's monumentally important civil-rights movement--the fight to make abortion unthinkable.

I do believe when we look back at what is written about how abortion ended (and I pray that will happen in my lifetime) we'll read about those 40 Days for Life campaigns, we'll read about the people who started them, Marilisa, Shawn, and David, and the others who were there the first day Abby showed up as a volunteer at Planned Parenthood, and we'll read about Abby--and by then perhaps the many other Abbys who, inspired by Abby's story, left their jobs as directors in the abortion industry and started showing women, and men, a better way.

I can't recommend the book highly enough! I'll be encouraging everyone I know to purchase a copy.

103 of 121 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest, real and informative January 11, 2011

By E. Stanford

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I read this book in one sitting because it was such a compelling story of conversion. Abby does not sugar coat her feelings, she shares them honestly, and that may be uncomfortable for some pro-lifers. Her story is a reasoned and emotional one of brokenness that is healed by God in the time and way that she could handle. It is a beautiful story with many moments that I will never forget. Buy a copy for yourself and a friend, you won't want to risk losing this book which crosses so many categories as to be a true classic. I wonder who will play Abby in the movie???

45 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book humanizes everybody and is a stirring read January 12, 2011

By Jeffrey Miller VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

In 2009 it made the national news that Abby Johnson the director of a Planned Parenthood in Texas had resigned and went to the Coalition for Life for help. Now it was easy to celebrate this a a victory on the pro-life front and a mark in our column. It is easy to forget the person behind the story sometimes and the new book Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey across the Life Line by Abby Johnson tells here story in full.

I am a sucker for a conversion story and so bought and downloaded this book just after it came out. I also sat down and read the book in basically one sitting. When you first hear the story you wonder how can a director of a Planned Parenthood clinic have her world turnaround after assisting during an ultrasound guided abortion. Surely she would know what was going on in her clinic? How did a young woman from a small town and pro-life family come to work for Planned Parenthood in the first place?

The book starts with her heart-wrenching description of the ultrasound guided abortion she was called in to assist with. Through her years at Planned Parenthood at first as a volunteer, then counselor, and later directory and even Employee of the Year for Planned Parenthood she did not assist with abortions normally. Her shock at what she saw on the ultrasound and the babies obvious attempt to escape the suction device destroyed the lies she had been taught and had passed on to so many others. She was a person who believed that abortion was no great thing and should be rare, but that it was still needed for difficult situations. She truly though that Planned Parenthood did much good with their exams and birth control. That she was even doing God's work. What she witnessed that day changed her life forever.

She then goes on to describe the years that led up to that day and how at Texas A&M she was first asked to volunteer at a clinic and that while she wasn't thrilled about the abortion part bought into the whole abortion rights rhetoric of choice and the days of back alley abortions and how they were helping women's health. She also describes the circumstances of her own two abortions and their effect on her.

Later on the book she describes how she felt that her conscience had been locked up and how it was that so much of what she did was contrary to what she believed or else had serious qualms about it, but that she would let other factors over ride that. Pro-abortion rhetoric is effective because it is conscience numbing in that it can make things sound so much better than they are and present evils as not only something good, but as the only right conclusion. All of us as sinners know about how we have minimized some sin and made excuses for it. We make excuses that could never stand a bright light without them shattering apart. Excuses we might even later laugh at and wonder how we could have thought such a thing. Abby's book gives us light in seeing how somebody who deeply cared about other women and only wanted to do her best for them could come into the fallacy of the pro-abortion lies.

What I loved most about this book is humanization. Dehumanizing your enemy is always a constant temptation. The conflict between the clinic workers and pro-life protesters are between two groups one on each side of the fence and the fence is a dividing line throughout the book. She writes of her friends her worked at the clinic and the tensions involved because of the protesters. She also writes about the Christian love she experienced from so many of the protesters who treated her with love even as she became the clinics director. How they reached out to her - especially the members of the Coalition for Life. She also notes that while she did not feel animosity against the protesters that she was also use to using the rhetoric passed on to her from the Planned Parenthood office describing these peaceful protesters in less than peaceful terms. Though as the book notes, not all the protesters were peaceful and their were some misguided zealots who did harm to the pro-life cause and that the other pro-lifers would try to reign in.

I found the writing style of the book to be both gripping and heavily personal where you almost consider yourself to become a voyeur on her life. This book could not have been easy to write where old wounds had to be reopened and redressed. By the end you feel you have known her for years and you just rejoice in her conversion and her apparent joy in leaving her old life behind. She is someone who had always believed in God and when getting married had gone back to steady attendance at church with her husband who was solidly pro-life. She relates the back and forth conversations she had with her husband and her parents who were not happy with her job at all - but never let her job stop them from loving her. Also interesting she was kicked out of one pro-life Protestant church when they found out about her job and then later when she became national news the members of her pro-abortion Episcopalian church also let their displeasure known about her leaving Planned Parenthood.

After she finally left the clinic with the assistance of the Coalition for Life she was sued by Planned Parenthood who wanted a restraining order placed on her. The story actually became national news when Planned Parenthood issued a Press Release about this restraining order. She was not expecting the national attention and thought a interview on a local TV station was going to be the extent of the publicity. Towards her end as director of the clinic she was coming more in conflict with Planned Parenthood leadership as she discovered that they wanted her to increase abortions, simply because they were more profitable. The book finishes with the trial, the results of the trial, and her subsequent work speaking for 40 Days for Life.

There is so much in this book this I so enjoyed. The frank discussion of her thought processes over the years, her relationships with others, and the difficulties she encountered when she realized how wrong and blind she had been. Her treatment by the pro-life community in her years working there is an example for all to follow. Many other clinic employees, clinic directors, or even abortion doctors have been befriended by pro-lifers show truly showed them Christ by their example.

This book as a spiritual biography is a quite worthwhile read and an excellent insight into those who work at abortion clinics. This book isn't meant as just a pro-life apologetic covering every aspect of the abortion debate covering topics like the personhood of the child or the statistics of abortion. That being said the ending of the book left some things ambiguous for me. For example after she had gone to the Coalition for Life she had told them that she was still for birth control. I would have liked to know by the ending if this was still the case since things like the pill having an abortafacient mechanism are never mentioned. Considering that she herself got pregnant three times while contraception I was certainly curious about this aspect. Generally I would have liked to see some counters to some of false history and statistics on back alley abortions she had learned. But I can understand while this was not done in a very personal autobiography where the focus of her story was a conversion story.

I have felt in the past that we needed a pro-life equivalent of what Uncle Tom's Cabin did for the slavery abolition movement. While this book is not exactly that - it is something close and I hope that it will be a book that becomes very popular. Everybody in the book are humanized - the child in the womb, abortion workers, pro-life protesters. There is not a stereotype of a person to be found in this book.