Taking Responsibility for Change, One Step at a Time: an update on ATTWN

My brother JTR made a strong case for personal responsibility yesterday, urging each of us to shake off apathy or that helpless “What can I do?” attitude.

If you need inspiration, here’s an update on how one woman is having an impact on the entire abortion industry.

Her goal:  shut it down.

Her strategy:  one worker at a time.

Last November I wrote a post about a new ministry whose unique purpose is to call workers out of the abortion industry. Founded by Abby Johnson, herself a former abortion clinic employee, And Then There Were None is celebrating its one year anniversary this month.  How are they doing? Here’s an excerpt from their year-in-review email:

We have now helped SIXTY abortion clinic workers from all over the country escape from the abortion industry.  They have come from Texas, Georgia, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Florida, Oklahoma, Colorado, California, and Iowa.  We had six abortion clinic workers leave from one clinic in Atlanta, and four clinic workers leave from a clinic in Houston…

Abby also reports that

• A former abortion industry worker has successfully achieved the closing of the clinic where she used to work;
• More and more former workers are going public with the abuses they have witnessed;
• as a result, Planned Parenthood in particular is growing more paranoid: A former worker anonymously sent an ATTWN flier to the clinic where she had worked; she soon got a letter from the clinic saying that her “communication is intimidating and harassing” and threatening legal action.

Another former Planned Parenthood employee tells of how her eyes were opened to PP’s true agenda: after examining a patient she discovered that the baby had died in utero, and sent her to a hospital emergency room. She was chastised for not scheduling her for an abortion instead. Her boss told her, “By the time we do the sonogram, she has already signed consent for the abortion. We don’t tell them if it is dead or alive, or twins, or triplets.”  You can read all of Angie’s story here. 

ATTWN also held its first “Leave the Abortion Industry Day”, called Exodus 2013, which itself resulted in five more abortion workers leaving the industry. And last month they held their first healing retreat for five former abortion workers.

You may feel that these results are insignificant, but consider:

60 fewer workers,

from 12 states,

through the work of a volunteer staff of two,

in one year’s time.

Their philosophy is simple:

 “No abortion clinic workers, no abortion clinics, no abortions.  It starts with the workers.”

We all want to see sweeping change and speedy results when we are passionate about a particular goal or agenda.  But ultimately, change occurs in individual hearts and minds…and each of those will be able to reach more…exponentially, and yet still one at a time.

As discouraging as the news has been lately, let this be an encouragement to you to not neglect your own sphere of influence.  Speak words of truth, in love, to anyone who will listen.

It starts with you and me.