Abby
Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood clinic director whose about-face on
abortion prompted her to resign her job, says she's gotten flack for her
decision from an unexpected quarter: her own church.
Her Oct. 6 decision to leave Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas - after
viewing an ultrasound-guided abortion of a 13-week-old fetus two weeks
earlier - made headlines, especially when she ended up volunteering at the
Coalition for Life center a few doors away. Her former employer filed a
restraining order to silence Mrs. Johnson, but a judge threw out the case on
Tuesday.
Now she is facing a different kind of music at her parish, St. Francis
Episcopal in nearby College Station, the home of Texas A&M University.
Whereas clergy and parishioners welcomed her as a Planned Parenthood
employee, now they are buttonholing her after Sunday services.
"Now that I have taken this stand, some of the people there are not
accepting of that," she told The Washington Times. "People have told me they
disagree with my choice. One of the things I've been told is that as
Episcopalians, we embrace our differences and disagreements. While I agree
with that, I am not sure I can go to a place where I don't feel I am
welcome."
The rector at St. Francis refused to comment on the charge of nonacceptance.
"I do not intend to be dismissive," the Rev. John Williams wrote in an
e-mail, "but my pastoral responsibilities to this faith community preclude
making public comments. I am sure you understand how important it is for me
to foster healthy communication around this emotional issue - that is only
possible, as I said, in the context of my pastoral ministry to all."
Mrs. Johnson, 29, spent much of her 20s searching for the right church.
"I was raised Southern Baptist but didn't find the Southern Baptist
community was very accepting of my work at Planned Parenthood," she said.
"It felt there was a spiritual conflict in what I was doing, but you just
begin to rationalize it. I didn't want to leave these women without options,
so you begin to think you are doing the right thing, although it doesn't
feel right."
As a result, she and her husband, Doug, "had been told by a couple of
churches," one being Baptist and the other nondenominational, "that because
I worked at Planned Parenthood, we could not be members."
She and her husband, who grew up Lutheran, dropped out of church until two
years ago, when they began attending St. Francis, a 25-year-old church that
achieved parish status in February.
"I thought that because this church was so accepting, maybe I was doing the
right thing," she said of her former employment of eight years. "A lot of
people would consider the Anglican faith a pro-choice faith."
The U.S. Episcopal Church has one of the most liberal stances on abortion of
any mainline Protestant denomination and is a member of the Religious
Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), which supports legalized
abortion.
A former longtime RCRC board member, the Rev. Katherine H. Ragsdale, is the
newly installed dean of the Episcopal Divinity School, a seminary in
Cambridge, Mass. She is famous for making a 2007 sermon in which she termed
abortion as a "blessing."
Mr. Williams "made it clear we were welcome" at St. Francis, Mrs. Johnson
said.
The couple made St. Francis their home. They were confirmed Episcopalians,
and their daughter, now 3, was baptized there. A photo on the front page of
the church's Web site, stfrancisonline.org, shows her seated at the right
end of the front row, holding a girl dressed in pink. Her husband, dressed
in an orange shirt, is to her right.
"Chief among our values," says a statement below the photo, "are service,
tolerance and understanding of the people and events that God has put into
our lives."
Now the Johnsons are "reconsidering" their membership. Another Planned
Parenthood staffer who was a member of St. Francis has not attended since
Mrs. Johnson made her new views public a month ago.
"I know Planned Parenthood told her to not have any contact with me nor
attend the same church," she said.
Rochelle Tafolla, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Southeast Texas,
said the employee had chosen freely not to attend St. Francis because she
was concerned about encountering Mrs. Johnson.
Churches have long debated how to handle the abortion clinic worker who
wishes to join. When Dr. George Tiller first began performing late-term
abortions, his Wichita, Kan., church, Holy Cross Lutheran, privately gave
him "admonitions" to stop his clinic work.
Instead, Dr. Tiller left the congregation, which was part of the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod, and moved across town to Reformation Lutheran Church,
which is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a more liberal
body.
He was ushering there when he was killed May 31 by a lone gunman.
Mrs. Johnson, who was in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday making arrangements
with a public relations firm to handle her growing speaking engagements,
says she's found a new job near her home: managing an
obstetrician-gynecologist clinic.
But her attendance at St. Francis remains up in the air.
"We really, really love that church," she said. "We don't want to leave."
