Former Planned Parenthood director joins staff of Live Action

by John Jalsevac

February 16, 2011 (www.LifeSiteNews.com) – Today the pro-life group Live Action announced the addition of Abby Johnson, the former director of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility turned pro-life advocate, to the Live Action team. She will assume the role of Chief Research Strategist.

Live Action has been prominent in the news in recent weeks, after the release of a series of videos showing Planned Parenthood staffers apparently willing to aid and abet underage sex trafficking by advising a “pimp” how to obtain abortions and birth control for his young “sex workers.”

Author of the new book “Unplanned,” Johnson worked and volunteered for Planned Parenthood for eight years until October of 2009 when she witnessed a 13-week old baby in an ultrasound-guided abortion lose the fight for its life in the womb. She is now a pro-life advocate. Since her high profile conversion, Johnson has said that the alarming incidents revealed by Live Action’s undercover investigations are not isolated incidents.

“Abby Johnson has seen the abuses inside Planned Parenthood with her own eyes and confirms the danger its clinics pose to women and young girls,” stated Live Action President Lila Rose. “She is a courageous trailblazer despite Planned Parenthood’s desperate attempts to attack her and silence the truth.

“We are thrilled and very thankful to have Abby join our team and are confident that her first-hand experience, conviction and guidance will provide invaluable counsel to Live Action as we advance our common goal of protecting women and children from the abuses of Planned Parenthood.”

Johnson said that she is “humbled and eager to begin this partnership with Live Action so that together we can expose the serious harm Planned Parenthood poses to the most vulnerable among us.”

“I can tell you from experience that Planned Parenthood often turns a blind eye to sexual abuse and trafficking – what you see in Live Action’s videos is not a rare occurrence. But ignorance is no defense, especially when it has turned their clinics into a safe haven for those who sexually exploit women and girls. This is not a training problem so much as it is an ideology problem.”

Live Action has previously released more than a dozen hidden camera videos from ten states. The body of visual evidence shows several alarming patterns of illegal Planned Parenthood activities including the willingness to aid and abet the sex trafficking of young girls, the cover-up of sexual abuse of minors, the skirting of parental consent laws, citing unscientific and fabricated medical information to manipulate women to have abortions, and Planned Parenthood’s willingness to accept donations earmarked to abort African-American babies.