Abby Johnson's Talk at Speak Out Illinois

Abby Johnson was the featured guest speaker at the annual Speak Out Illinois Conference, this past Saturday on January 28th. Speak Out Illinois is a compendium of right to life groups in Illinois, who hold a yearly educational conference, commemorating the Roe v Wade decision.  Abby's talk, was very moving and eye-opening, and personally had me in tears several times.   

Abby Johnson is the author of "Unplanned", a book documenting her own personal journey, from former director of a Texas Planned Parenthood clinic, to pro-life advocate.

As I had already previously read her dramatic story and blogged on my perceptions of the book, I was interested to see if she might have anything new to say at the Speak Out Conference, that may have not been covered in her book ... and she sure did!

As Abby stepped up to the podium, I noticed she seemed to have gained a bit of weight around her waistline. Yes, as Abby launched her introduction, she announced that she was pregnant.  With her next statement, came the "new detail", I was wondering about, as she began explaining the difference between what it was now like to be pregnant and pro-life, as opposed to being pregnant and pro-choice, as she had been with her previous pregnancies.  I myself had never thought of this aspect before, and the minute she made the statement about the differences between the two, it hit me like a brick!  

What have we done to women?

As a mother of 5 children myself, you could say that I have had an up-close and personal experience with what it is like being pregnant.  All of us mothers should know, how our hormones, which go into critical mass during pregnancy, can affect us. One day we are totally up for the idea of having a baby ... while the next ... we may not quite be too happy about the matter.  Reading many books given me by my OBYGYN at the time of my pregnancies, I learned that these emotional ups and downs can be a normal experience, and not to worry about them.

Not to worry, expecting a new baby for me, no matter what ups and downs I went through, was still a wondrous and miraculous experience ... during which time I could ponder the wonder of what was taking place .. and the identity of who was growing under my heart.  Particularly with my 1st pregnancy, I read almost everything I could get my hands on regarding the development of the little Nester in my womb. I would get so excited over every inch of my baby's development.  I could not get my hands on enough data describing my baby's progress ... mostly because for me ... it was a baby ...  it was not a blob of tissue or a fetus or a product of pregnancy!  How droll!

Abby's remark of now being able to more fully enjoy her own pregnancy, knowing that she was carrying an actual baby, really made me feel so sad and enraged over what we've been doing to women with all these labels, such as blob of tissue etc. They've robbed women of one of the most amazing and miraculous experiences they will ever go through, by rendering their pregnancies as mere incubations of 'potential' life, as opposed to, what the bible calls: "being with child". 

I tried to imagine, all those hardships and up and down days of my own pregnancies, being only for a blob of tissue?   For those of us who are pro-life, we know, that whatever ups and downs, illness and discomfort we may experience during our pregnancies, it is all eclipsed by the wonder of knowing that we are "with child" ... not a blob of tissue.

What have we done to women?