Reaching Abortion Workers

0:00 There's a certain level of repentance that's taken place there, right. They're repenting because they've been involved in the industry, and so it does require sacrifice, and that's why it's important that they understand, like you said, the true gospel. So when we can share the gospel, we need to I'm yours, I'm yours, I'm yours, and me, Lord, I'm yours, I'm yours. I'm Welcome to the Gospel Centered pro Life Podcast, a podcast designed to equip, encourage, and challenge you in pro life ministry and always with a focus on the gospel. Stay tuned. I felt your passh touch your heart. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Gospel Centered Pro Life Podcast. I am here with Daniel Parks and y'all know me. I'm I'm Vicky. I hope y'all are doing well today. We are doing a topic that we thought we had already covered, but we're not sure we have and so we thought maybe it wouldn't hurt to cover it again. And that's how to deal with the abortion workers that you are certainly going to encounter in your work as a as a sidebok counselor so, you know, we like to say, if there were no abortion workers, there would be no abortion.

1:23 So I don't know if that's quite true, but it certainly would decrease the number of abortions. So it wouldn't be an abortion clinics, that's for sure. Because ye yeah, yeah, So whenever possible, of course, we try to encourage abortion workers to leave the industry. We actually do see a lot of turnover, We do see a lot of success in in doing that. So we wanted to give you some tips on how to how to most effectively maybe get the abortion workers to rethink the job that they are in. Yeah, you know, one of the awesome things that you've seen over the past I mean it's probably been two years or so that we've started keeping track of this, but I think we've seen what forty five abortion workers that have quit over the past two years or so. Yeah, those are the ones we know about. Yeah, and so that's pretty amazing, right, forty five abortion workers. And some of these people are people that have surrendered their lives to Jesus, which is pretty amazing. Yeah. Yeah, So we'll hop right into that. You all may know Abby Johnson, who was the subject of the movie Unplanned. She was a former Planned Parenthood manager, and when she left the industry, she found it to be very difficult. There had been things that she had seen and done that were illegal. She wanted to expose them. She ended up in a lawsuit with Planned Parenthood, who was trying to keep her from mentioning anything that she had seen in her in her years at Plant Parenthood, and uh, surprisingly she won the lawsuit.

3:00 And she recognized how difficult it was for people on so many levels when they leave the abortion industry. They of course it's great that they've left, but there are are often emotional scars, spiritual scars, um the difficulty of finding new work with that on on your record. And so she began a ministry and I never get the name right till there are none or and then one is a song and one is the name of her ministry. So and then there were none and it's a it's a really effective ministry in helping abortion workers who want to leave the abortion industry. They do all kinds of great things.

3:46 They help with finding new work, they help with legal representation, they even help with salary as the moms are seeking new work and they have I believe it's at least a once a year completely free healing retreat where they'll fly these workers out and have a retreat for um and classes and just a time of of healing for for these workers. So they do a really great um job with working with former abortion workers. And there are some things that we might not know if we did not do that every day, that their ministry does know, the depth of her the depth of the legal um consequences that can occur. So, um yeah, I mean I would say that beyond the legal stuff and beyond just the practical stuff of finding a job and all of that. Um, you know, there's some trauma. I guess is the word that comes to mind. I think you mentioned that that is much like the same trauma in the same experience that post abortive people have. In reality is that many of these abortion workers have abortions in their past as well, but those that don't still they've been involved in abortions. I mean, we even see that with the men they're involved with abortion, they carry a certain load of guilt or a friend that took a friend to have an abortion.

5:14 We've ministered as a ministry to people who need post abortive healing, not because they had an abortion, or took someone to have an abortion, but because they didn't stop their friend from having an abortion, they didn't speak the truth, and so there's this guilt that's there necessarily, right, they should feel guilty for being involved in abortions. But when we repent and uh turn away from the things, we still might carry some of that guilt with us. And the Lord can wash away guilt. So it's important that these abortion workers understand the gospel and that the guilt that they feel is washed away, just like people who have abortions in their past. Right, So I want I wanted to start off just to be sure that we get this in with immediately. What is the practical thing on a sidewalk you could call out to abortion workers? And this is I'm going to give you typically kind of what I would what I would call out. We always call out the website Abbie Johnson's website. So um, we'll we'll say abortion worker dot com. That's the website abortion worker dot com. It's easy to remember. We do have cards that Abbie Johnson has sent us which we can hand out, but oftentimes they actually are told that they may not come near us, they may not talk to us, or they can be fired. And so so I have laid the card down on the grass before and backed away and said, you can get this card, and I actually did if someone do that once,

6:44 but they can't come near us. They're on cameras. There's often security cameras, whatever. But so here's the typical thing I would call out. Let me mention real quick before we get into all of those specifics, because I think it's helpful for people to understand. It's sort of the priority and we talk about is in our training and we even talk about how to reach out to abortion workers in our trainings. And uh so, if you guys have been through our trainings one oh one through one o three, you've gotten some of this information already. We get more in depth with more you know, the focus on abortion workers. But just so you guys understand, when we're at the abortion center, we kind of see our engagements in a level of priority. And so what we mean by that is the moms calling out to the mom's engaging with the moms is priority number one, right, Well, priority number one is honoring Jesus, right, and he wants to save that baby. But the first person we're gonna engage with. We're gonna prioritize engagement with is gonna be the moms going into the clinic. The second is going to be the dads and support people, friends, family members, the person that brought her there, the person that's there with them. That's gonna be our second priority. Our third priority is going to be the abortion workers.

7:55 We're gonna engage with them. And so, if you encounter a scenario in which a mom was walking into the abortion center and there's a dad in his car and there's an abortion worker walking into the back of the abortion center, who are you going to speak to because you can't speak to all three at the same time. You're going to speak to the mom. If you encounter a situation where the mom is already in there, there's a dad in the parking lot, mill around in the parking lot, and then there's an abortion worker walking in, who you're gonna speak to? You can speak to the dad. Right If neither the mom or the dad or support person is around, or maybe you've already engaged with them and they've ignored you or flipped you off and told you to stop talking to them, well, then you can move to the next party. Which is the abortion workers calling out to them, and we do try if we're able to call out to them each time they walk into the abortion center. Depends on when you get there and if you notice the flow of things kind of vet latrobe. It's pretty much like clockwork, right. The abortion workers come in at a particular time, and so we can address them as they're coming in. Um. And of course we're gracious in the way that we're addressing them. We're not just yelling out you filthy murder or whatever. We're speaking the truth. But we're also gracious of making ourselves approachable. But that is sort of the priority. As we call out to folks going in, or we engage with folks. Some of you guys aren't calling out. You're engaging with people on the sidewalker walking into the abortion center. Either way, if I'm going to hand out literature, I'm going to hand out literature to that mom going in first, and then maybe to the dad if I can't engage with her, and then maybe to the abortion worker. I can't engage with the mom or the dad, you

9:26 know, that's kind of the priority. All that kind of makes sense. Yeah, yeah, that's good. No, that's good. I'm glad that you mentioned that it's not in the article I wrote. Uh. Something you should know is that the opposition that often have umbrella's vest outside of the abortion center, they're not abortion workers. Those are volunteers and largely I mean maybe some are paid, but but most are volunteers. I do not call out abortion worker dot Com to them. It's the people that are working in the clinic. There is a call center next to the clinic where we work, and we also they are abortion workers. We do call out to them, and definitely to the clinic people. So what I will typically say, this is what I'm about to tell you is is if I have a long amount of time. If I don't, all I'll say is my name is Vicky, and I know there's times you wish you could leave this job. Go to abortion worker dot com. They will help you leave if I have time to expand upon it. Some of the things I might add, Uh, you understand that your salary is being paid by the death of innocent babies.

10:31 Um Uh. They will help you find new work at abortion worker dot com. They have resources to help you along with healing retreats. They know what you're going through. If you're contemplating leaving this job, because all of them are former abortion workers themselves abortion worker dot com. And I'll repeat the abortion worker dot com a few times, so um, so that's just right from the get go, that's that's pretty much what what we will call out, and we can expand upon it as time perm it. But we've worked with many abortion workers who have left. I'm working with one right now that left about, I don't know about a month ago, and she reminded me of some things that I think are very important for all of us to know, which are some of the difficulties that these former workers are going to face and why they're in that job in the first place, which I didn't know when when I first started as as a sideball councilor but I do know now, and the difficulties are real and they're significant. So one of the first one is that many of them are felons. That is not true of every single one of them, for sure, but I have found many of them that I have worked with have a felony record, and finding work is very hard.

11:56 So um. One of the things Abbie Johnson Ministry does is they have a very tried and true method of of helping these former workers to find work. But they really do have to do exactly what Abby Johnson's group tells them to do, and they pretty much guarantee that they will have work within two weeks I think they say, or maybe it's three weeks, as long as they follow all that Abbey suggest but it's probably not going to be their dream job. And and so that's very important. That's why we share the gospel. We want to really be sure that they understand that they might not get paid as well if they leave this work, but they will be paid eternally with with turning their life over to the Lord and doing what he would have them do. And so that I don't forget in the article that accompanies this uh, at the end of the article, we have a list of companies that are less resistant and even consider themselves um uh, I don't know helpful to people in in hiring people with a felony record. And that's a good list for you to have. I did send it to the woman I'm working with right now because she is struggling to find work. She asked, is there anyone that doesn't do a background check? You know, honestly, there aren't many. Um, everyone pretty much does a background check nowadays. And as soon as she said that, I knew why she said it. I knew it was because there was a felony in her record and and there is,

13:33 so keep that in mind. A second important thing to remember is that many of them have done illegal things as abortion inside the clinic, they have seen illegal things, they have participated in illegal things, and they are very fearful about leaving because maybe they've been directly threatened by the abortion center. I do know some have told me that. Um, but some of them are just afraid they're going to be liable. They know what they've done, what's wrong, criminally wrong at times. So um, you know, to be aware of that now. Abby Johnson's group is aware of that, and that's why we really always refer them to group. They can get free legal counsel in fact with Appy Screw, Yeah, which is really helpful. It's it's really helpful to have another organization that you can point these abortion workers too.

14:33 And because like we can't do it all right, we can't follow up with the moms and reach out to the dads and plug them into churches and do the mentor plug him into mentorship and all the other things that we do on top of that working with abortion workers. It's so it's such a blessing that we have a ministry that we can point them to that has a framework for all of this stuff very effectives. Yeah. Now, I have found many of the women that I work with tell me they feel it's very intrusive. Would Abbie Johnson's ministry requires to them? But it's not when you understand all that they're doing for these former workers and um and all that they're providing totally free. But be aware of that the workers sometimes do complain about that.

15:22 The farm workers, I mean, they're in this realm of ministry. They're the experts and if there's certain information that they need to have and if they're look at what they're doing, Look what they're offering. They're offering them compensation until they can find a job. They're offering them a resume, like working through their resume and all that stuff. And so you know, they're the experts on this. So I'll put that, you know, in their hands and whether or not how how atrusive intrusive they are, that's between between them and the abortion workers at the end of the day, we're calling these abortion workers to repentance, right, and repentance requires acrifice, us turning to the Lord and doing the right thing. That doesn't mean that every time an abortion worker quits they surrender their life to Jesus. Right. They're not always quitting because of their surrendering to Jesus. Sometimes all the time. It's a process, right, Um. But you know, either way, there's a certain level of repentance that's taken place. They're right, they're repenting because they've been involved in the industry, and so it does require sacrifice. And that's why it's important that they understand, like you said, the true gospel. So when we can share the gospel, we need to Yeah. And and staying in touch um through the process if you can, not to take over what Abbie Johnson's group is doing. But uh, I have had them call me and say, I just don't want to fill this stuff out, or I just don't want them to help me with my resume. I think it's good enough. Whatever, And and to keep pointing them back to do what Abbie

16:56 tells you to do, because honestly, it's effective. She will help you find your way out of this mess. But you've gotta you gotta follow through. And since sometimes you're the first point of trust for them, they're more willing to trust you than another organization. So stay in touch if they will allow you to stay in touch. I I do try to until I know that they are now um they've been out for a while from the industry, and that that they have a new job. We have to remember many of them are poor. Not only do they have a record and many times, but many of them are very poor. And this is a relatively well paying job. And um, and that's the draw. So many of them have told me it's just a job. And when they say that, we remind them, no, it's not just a job. It's a job where innocent baby's blood pace your salary. But um, but they say, I'm I'm providing for my family. That's that's why I'm here. I'm trying to care for my family. And God would have me do that. So you've got to be ready with with an answer to that, because because you'll hear that a lot. Yeah. And you know, we always talk about speaking the truth and love, that balance of grace and truth. Um, And we want to be gracious and we don't want to heap insult to injury, right.

18:14 We want to make sure that we're speaking the truth, but we're also tempering that with the love of God, the mercy of God, that understanding ourselves that if it wasn't for the grace of God, we might be working inside of an abortion clinic ourselves. Um, but we do need to reiterate that point that this is not just any work. This is not just a job that you're using to pay your bills, but babies are dying because of what you're doing. A lot of times, the pushback you'll get from some of the abortion workers is, especially like the ones in the call center or like the ones that are working the front desk, is well, I'm not actually doing the abortions. I'm not actually involved in the abortions helping them to understand, Like you laid it out, Actually your check is signed with the blood of innocent babies. You could say it just like that, or you do me too, And um, I'm not yelling that out across the parking lot. I'm not you know, yelling out again, you filthy murder, you blood stained money. I'm I'm doing that with a gracious tone. I'm doing that with a compassionate tome because at the end of the day, we have to reach these abortion workers with compassion. Right again, we have to understand, except for the grace of God, we would be working inside of an abortion clinic ourselves. So we have to come with compassion. We have to come with a gracious tone, but we also have to come with the truth and shaking them out of that that sort of that lack of understanding the weight of what they're doing. Um, you do that by stinging them with

19:47 the truth and reminding them what they're involved in. Now, I know some of these abortion workers have kind of numbed to their conscience with the idea, with the notion that they're in it for the women. They're in it for women's health care. As a matter of fact, Abby Johnson and her testimony, as I recall, God involved because she wanted to help women with reproductive healthcare. Right. She got involved with plant parenthood because she was sold that that bill of goods, that you're helping women exercise their right to choice and all this other stuff, when in reality, if you see what happens behind the scenes and you talk to abortion workers that are honest about what happens behind the scenes. They know that it's not helping women. Actually, it's destroying lives, the lives of babies and the lives of the women. So reminding them of that, and I will say that too. My calling out to abortion workers is typically like this. I'll start out with God has made you for so much more than this. God has given you skills and ability to help and not to do harm. And you know what you're doing inside of there's harming babies and harming women. So please go to abortion worker dot com turn away from this industry. And that's how that's normally my my line that I call out something that I like that because that's giving the positive You're painting a positive vision. Uh when you're calling out to them, which is a really I think, really, well, ye do the same thing calling out to the abortionist too. I think there is a different level. You know, if we talk about levels of people that we reach out to, You've got the abortion workers kind of like the common nurses and people that work the

21:22 front desk and people that work the call center, and then you've got the abortionists. And I think that's even another level of engaging with them and helping them to understand, and I'll call out that very same thing. I might be a little a little more harsh with the abortionist because I know that he's there. There's no way that he or she can deny that they're killing human beings, right, they see the little arms and legs. They know it, right. They've been to medical school for you know, eight ten years, so there's no denying the facts. And so i might be a little more harsh with them, but I'm still gonna be gracious. I'm still gonna understand that except with the grace of God, um, I might be doing the same thing that they're doing. But I do, at the end want to call them to repentance and to call them to connect with the abortion worker dot com folks. Yeah, And and that's a good point that we do call out to the abortionist as well, not not just the clinical workers, but but the abortionist his or him or herself. And one of the things in painting the positive vision sort of idea I will call out is you, at one time, maybe even still have worked handing a living child to his mother, and you know the joy of that moment um, But that's not what you're experiencing in this work, is it? And what do you think God has called you to? So? Um? So, yeah, calling

22:52 calling out to the abortionist as well as really important. Um it's it's something that kind of has surprised me, but it's it's often the case with the ones that I have worked with, is that they have had very poor role models in their life and some of the basic life skills that we don't even think about. Maybe they don't have, things like when their phone breaks. This happened recently. Their phone either was discontinued or broke or whatever. And I had given a whole list of kind of two dues and people to call, including abortion worker dot com. And when their phone broke, they just didn't do it. They just kind of didn't persist. And weeks later she still didn't have a job, And I said, well, what does abortion worker dot com say? And she said, well, I never got back to them when my phone broke, and and I had to say, well, that's something you need to do right away. In fact, I would do it immediately because they're the people that are most going to help you.

23:53 And said oh okay, and she was willing. She just really didn't even think of it, which is odd to me, but I think to be aware of that, that that helping and coaching them is really important and so kind of um uh to to wrap this up, you've got the article that um that we have put out, and we we don't have the time to go through all of the points. But I think a final point that I I would like to leave us with is remind them of who they are in Christ. Remind them they are not defined by their past. It is very important that they recognize they do not have to always be remembered as the person who helped in the dismemberment of little babies. They are a new creation in Christ, hopefully if they have come to the Lord. But even reminding them, like you said earlier, Daniel, that God has created them for something so much better. Yeah. Yeah, if they're not yet children of God, you can inform them of what they can be and how they can be free in Jesus. If they came to know the Lord through repenting of working in the abortion industry, and you know, through the process, um reminding them that they're not who they used to be. Yeah. That, and so the Lord is very gracious and what he does and we've been blessed to see abortion workers quit. We actually have a testimony in our love life on

25:26 our love life YouTube channel, Kawana's testimony who Kawanta used to work the front desk of the Tribe Abortion Center for I think she says twelve to fifteen years and um, by God's grace, I would really encourage you guys. Maybe I'll put that in the show notes for you guys to watch that video if you have not. But it's an awesome testimony, and it's a testimony you can share with other abortion workers as well, just what the Lord will do and how the Lord can turn things around. So we appreciate you guys listening. We hope this episode was a blessing to you. You can reach out to me Daniel at love life dot org. You can reach her vi key with a y at love life dot org. We'd love to hear from you. Also check out our podcast website, Gospel Centered pro life dot com, where all of our episodes are stored, and then you can go to our training and equipping website Sidewalks for Life dot com, Sidewalks Centumber before Life dot com. I hope you take advantage of those things. And until next time, God bless bless ye all. Give me our left love, give me our lift for gratitude. I know it will cost me my life. Nothings too precious since I met you, M