Planned Parenthood Withdraws Lawsuit Against Former Employee
Planned Parenthood recently dropped its lawsuit against a former employee who quit after she "had a change of heart" on the issue of abortion.
The national abortion provider decided not to pursue legal action against Abby Johnson and the Brazos Valley Coalition for Life and submitted a notice to the District Court of Brazos County, Texas, 85th Judicial District, to withdraw its lawsuit.
Johnson had been employed with Planned Parenthood for eight years and in 2008 was named employee of the year for the southeast Texas region. During those years, Johnson had never seen an abortion take place on an ultrasound.
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Recently, she was asked to assist in an ultrasound-guided abortion procedure – which is not common, she noted – and when she saw the 13-week-old baby on the screen, she decided to resign.
"Planned Parenthood tries to instill in their employees and the women that are coming in for abortions that this is not a baby. This is just a mass of cells," Johnson said earlier this month on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor."
Though Johnson "left on good terms," as she stated, Planned Parenthood sought a temporary injunction against her disclosing confidential information. The suit alleges that she violated a confidentiality agreement and copied files at the Bryan health center in the days before her resignation. The abortion provider claimed the former director of the Bryan clinic was using information from the documents to bring harm to the organization and/or its employees.
The legal action came as a surprise to Johnson.
Johnson denied the allegations and argued the assertions were "vague and unfounded."
District Judge J.D. Langley issued a ruling saying Planned Parenthood failed to provide sufficient evidence.
In an interview on Fox, Johnson said she thinks the abortion provider is nervous that she is going to "continue to speak out and tell people that their business model has changed and that this prevention that they preach out maybe it's not really what Planned Parenthood is all about."
"With the downward economy they are really trying to increase their abortion numbers because that is the most lucrative part of their business," the former abortion clinic director asserted on Fox.
Though she wanted to focus on family planning and prevention, Johnson claimed she was directed to bring in more women for abortions.
"The clinic that I worked at, usually we only did abortions every other Saturday," Johnson said on Fox. "They said 'you know what that's not really enough. We really need to be able to open this open to allow women to have abortions almost every day during the week.'"
Steven H. Aden, senior legal counsel with Alliance Defense Fund, has maintained that the lawsuit by Planned Parenthood was just the latest of its scandals.
"Planned Parenthood isn't interested in the health of women and girls. It exists to exploit vulnerable girls and women for profit," Aden said.
Since quitting the abortion industry, Johnson has accepted employment with the Brazos Valley Coalition for Life.
