Abby Johnson delivers a stunning keynote at the Bringing America Back to Life Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, on abortion and the pro-life movement in the United States. She lays out the truth about abortion in America and explains why pro-lifers are winning the war on abortion.
00:04:34.900Like, you know, University of Texas and Guttmacher and these other organizations have come out and said that abortions in Texas have not decreased.
00:04:42.640And I believe them because we hear it on our hotline.
00:04:50.260And I can go online to over 70 websites in the state of Texas and type in my own information or a fake name, fake date of birth, fake last menstrual period.
00:05:02.360I can type in any information I want and tell them I don't have any money and get abortion pills sent to any address I want to for free.
00:05:11.660That's that's the reality of abortion in our country.
00:05:14.440So what I would say to people is that we were grossly unprepared for the overturn of Roe because the pro-abortion movement is always ready.
00:05:27.720And I can say that just from working there for eight years.
00:06:20.840And we've been saying in the pro-life movement that we have a supplier problem.
00:06:27.860But we really don't have a supplier problem anymore because the overwhelming majority of women, about 65 percent of people performing abortions are the women themselves.
00:06:38.560So, you know, it used to be that the majority of abortions were happening inside of abortion clinics.
00:06:46.400And so, you know, the pro-life movement said, well, we've got to go after the doctor.
00:06:50.140We have to go after the supplier, the person that is actually supplying the, you know, the abortion, the person that's actually, you know, killing the baby, the person that's doing the damage, the person that is, you know, killing the baby, the one holding the instruments, the one giving out the pills.
00:07:08.100Right. Like that, that's who we're going to have to go after.
00:07:12.740That's the one we're going to have to prosecute.
00:07:14.640Well, what happens when it's the woman killing her own child?
00:07:18.820What happens when she's the one checking the boxes and ordering the pills and paying for it?
00:07:24.840And they're coming directly to her address.
00:07:27.140And she's never talking to a doctor because she's the one that is solely responsible for the death of her child.
00:07:36.060And that's happening in about 65 percent of the cases now in our country.
00:07:40.000So when the woman becomes her own abortionist, so then we have this reckoning in the pro-life movement, you know, that's been, I think, brewing for a long time.
00:07:50.700You know, when do we start saying, OK, we call for personhood sometimes in the pro-life movement.
00:07:59.080And then sometimes we say, well, we have a big carve out for women where we say, well, women should be allowed to kill their babies.
00:08:07.460Women should be allowed to murder their babies.
00:08:09.840You know, without penalty, they should be able to murder their babies because it's their babies and their moms.
00:08:16.780And that's perfectly OK. But nobody else can murder the baby.
00:08:20.840So if I'm a drunk driver and I hit a woman who's pregnant, then somehow at that moment, that child does have personhood because I'm the one that killed the baby.
00:08:32.320And so I'm going to be charged with double homicide.
00:08:34.100But if that woman was on her way to an abortion clinic and then decided I'm going to kill my baby that day, that baby has no personhood and she can kill her baby and it's totally fine.
00:08:46.780And it's not considered murder. And that's insane. And that is incredibly inconsistent.
00:08:52.300And so that's kind of that's going to have to come to a head in the pro-life movement.
00:08:57.340And that kind of comes to the idea of victimhood.
00:09:02.200You know, are women victims? The woman that uses abortion as birth control, is she a victim or is she making a conscious decision to have an abortion?
00:09:11.800And I do think that this is where we kind of get into a generational divide because there are a lot of women that had abortions in the 70s and 80s and, you know, even the 90s.
00:09:22.100They really didn't know what they were doing. We didn't have the Internet. We didn't have, you know, social media.
00:09:26.660We didn't have ultrasound images available to us. Women really didn't know what they were doing.
00:09:32.260And they really were. I think most of them at that time really were victims.
00:09:36.760They were, you know, victims to, you know, just doctors. Doctors weren't telling them, like, we're actually performing an abortion.
00:09:44.400They call it a menstrual extraction. They said all these things. Women didn't have ultrasounds available.
00:09:48.720Like, you know, it was just kind of this ignorance. It's not that way anymore.
00:09:55.500Women, every woman that has an abortion knows she's pregnant with a baby. They all call their babies babies.
00:10:01.980The majority of women that have abortions have already had an ultrasound of their child that they abort.
00:10:08.060They are celebrating the fact that they're aborting their babies. They're having abortion parties after they abort their babies.
00:10:14.980They're taking videos of their abortion and posting it on TikTok.
00:10:21.180These are not victims of abortion. We go out to abortion clinics and, you know, we say to them, like, please don't do this to your baby.
00:10:29.720And they're flipping us off and saying, I can't wait to murder this kid.
00:10:33.040These are not victims of abortion. And we are saying two different things in the pro-life movement.
00:10:39.840We're saying, you know, women are so strong and they can do whatever they want and they can overcome any challenge that comes in front of them.
00:10:46.180But they're also really stupid idiots that can't figure out whether they're pregnant with a baby or not.
00:10:51.500And they're all victims. So it's kind of one or the other.
00:10:55.780Either they're strong and they're independent and they can figure things out on their own and they can overcome challenges.
00:11:00.240Or they're dumb idiots. They can't figure out how to open their their phone and figure out if they're pregnant with a baby or not.
00:11:08.440But it's it's not it's not both. It's kind of one or the other.
00:11:12.020And I believe women are strong and incredible. And I was not a victim. I've had two abortions. I was not a victim.
00:11:18.080I was just selfish. And the majority of women having abortions today are selfish or doing it for personal gain, for personal reasons.
00:11:26.080I think all Christians, all Catholics believe that in the end, this will be righted somehow.
00:11:33.780So I think we're going to have to push bills for equal protection where abortion is considered murder, where murder is penalized appropriately.
00:11:45.320And all people are considered to be created equal and are protected under equal rights.
00:11:55.400And, you know, it is the pro-life movement that stops these bills from coming to fruition.
00:12:02.720So, you know, it was pro-life groups in Louisiana that stalled at last legislative session.
00:12:07.660It will be pro-life groups in Texas that stop it this session.
00:12:12.400It will be pro-life groups in North Dakota that stall the equal protection bill there in North Dakota.
00:12:18.680It will be pro-life groups in Georgia that stall it this year.
00:12:23.000So that, I mean, it's been, there's been an equal protection bill introduced into over 20 states this year, this legislative session, and it won't, they won't go through.
00:13:52.200And we aren't teaching them that you actually have to be accountable for your actions.
00:13:56.840When I had an abortion in the year 2000, I was 20 years old.
00:14:02.460If I would have known that there was a possibility that I could have been convicted of a crime for having an abortion, I would have never had that first abortion.
00:14:14.860And to be quite honest, I'm not really even sure that I would have been participating in such risky sexual behavior.
00:14:20.940If I would have known there wasn't an easy way out of it, you know, because that changes our behavior.
00:14:28.820Like, if we know there's not, like, I'm not going to easily get away with this, you know, that changes our behavior.
00:14:35.340It's the same reason, like, I didn't sneak out of my house to go hang out with my friends when I was in high school.
00:14:41.140Because I knew my parents were not having any of that, right?
00:14:44.460But I would sneak out of my other friends' houses whose parents were super, like, you can get away with whatever you want.
00:14:54.620And if I wouldn't have had my first abortion, I wouldn't have gone on to work in the abortion industry.
00:14:59.620And if I wouldn't have worked in the abortion industry, I wouldn't have the lives of 22,000 babies weighing on my conscience for the rest of my earthly life.
00:15:09.920And if I wouldn't have worked in the abortion industry, I wouldn't have had my second abortion.
00:15:13.440I mean, these decisions, the lack of consequence, lack of accountability, it changes the trajectory of our lives.
00:16:18.160I think, though, it's a huge lesson for the church.
00:16:24.060It is probably the most evident thing the church has done in removing consequences from people.
00:16:34.020I mean, how often are we actually calling sin, sin, right?
00:16:39.080I mean, I just did an event in Arizona.
00:16:41.620You know, it was pretty much all youth, pretty much all young people there.
00:16:46.040And, you know, I'm standing up there and I'm just, I just was like, you know, there's a lot of things that you guys are not being told are wrong.
00:16:57.400And so I'm going to stand up here and tell you what they are because somebody has to tell you.
00:17:02.660And, you know, I'm like, if you're looking at pornography, like men and women, if you're looking at pornography, if you're lusting after someone or something, that's a sin.
00:18:51.660It's amazing because what you said at first about the taking away of consequences and this latter stuff, so many of our most famous, most well-known, even prolific and well-spoken church leaders have said openly they believe there's no one in hell.
00:19:12.080Bishop Barron, Pope Francis, the list could go on and on, but really big names.
00:19:19.580They're not, especially with Bishop Barron, you're not talking about someone who, you know, he does give some powerful homilies.
00:19:27.160But they're on record saying this, never having retracted it.
00:19:30.880And that completely removes the consequences.
00:19:33.600Because if there is no hell or there's nobody in hell, does it really matter?
00:19:40.220You know, I don't know what everybody else says, but I know that scripture says there is a heaven and hell.
00:19:45.160And I don't believe that it would have been created if no one was in it.
00:19:48.640Jesus said, narrow is the road that leads to life.
00:20:30.540So this new belief of an empty hell or there is no hell or whatever is so anti-Jesus, anti-Christ, you might say, because it does to me anyway.
00:20:44.400It totally gets to your first point about the lack of consequence and to your second point about the need to challenge us.
00:20:51.760Because if there is no eternal consequence, none of it really, you know, it might be nicer to do it this way, but in the end, it doesn't really matter.
00:21:01.500I think there's a lot of people, like I remember, I mean, I'll just tell you, like, John, I remember being in, working at Planned Parenthood.
00:21:12.000You know, I grew up in church, so, like, I knew there was, like, a heaven and a hell, you know.
00:21:16.720I don't know that we talk about hell enough.
00:21:18.720I don't know that we talk about the finality of hell and the, I think we talk a lot about, like, buddy Jesus, you know, and, like, oh, no, God's so merciful, and he is, but he's also just.
00:21:45.380And we see that over and over in scripture.
00:21:48.140So, I remember when I worked at the clinic, I remember, you know, I was going to church every Sunday that I worked at Planned Parenthood, and they used that, you know, they wanted me to tell Christian women who came in, like, oh, don't worry about it.
00:22:03.100Like, I'm the director here, but I work at, you know, I go to church, and I'm the director here, so clearly it's fine for you to have an abortion, right?
00:22:11.100They wanted me to use my Christianity, but I went to a very pro-abortion church.
00:22:15.060I went to an Episcopal church, so it's, like, all the bells but no morals, you know.
00:22:18.880And I remember one time, like, seeing the people outside praying, and I, you know, I was looking at them kind of all day.
00:22:26.800They were, I could see them out in front of my window.
00:22:29.400And I remember looking at them and thinking and wondering to myself, if I died today, do I think I would go to hell?
00:22:37.520Like, I remember thinking that to myself and thinking, yeah, I think I would go to hell if I died today.
00:22:48.780And then something in my mind was, like, well, that's okay.
00:23:08.220Like, we should be taught the fear of hell.
00:23:13.240Like, we should be taught fear of hell.
00:23:15.400We should be taught fear of being separated from God for eternity.
00:23:20.700That should be so scary for us that even the thought of being in hell would be enough to get us, like, to light our butts up and, like, get us out of whatever we're doing.
00:23:31.680That would even, like, put us questioning that decision, you know, that we're making.
00:23:37.760But I don't think we talk about it enough because we just talk about this, like, fun-loving Jesus, you know, that, like, wants to play basketball with you or whatever.
00:23:46.860And it's like, that's not, that's really not it.
00:23:50.240Like, he wants everyone to live in eternity with him.
00:23:53.600But not everybody makes that decision.
00:26:08.160Like I'm trying to draw the right people into our movement to actually end this thing.
00:26:13.240Like I'm trying to draw the right people in so that we can minister to people, so that we can save not just physical lives, but like eternal lives.
00:26:24.900So it's not just about having bodies in here.
00:26:29.880That's not what this movement is about.
00:26:32.060But for a while, it felt like that's just what we were trying to do.
00:26:35.040It was like with the Republican Party, like this big tent sort of party.
00:27:08.200And that is exactly what's going to happen to the pro-life movement if we don't really suck it in and say this is a movement based on the principles of Christ.
00:27:27.220This is not where we just like accept everyone and take everyone and we allow people to be, you know, pro-life and this and pro-life and trans and pro-life.