"unPLANNED"

I recently finished reading an interesting book with my mom called "unPLANNED." This book is written by Abby Johnson and she tells about her experience working as the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas. Abby loved her job and really enjoyed the helping women/educating women aspect of the job. As director of Planned Parenthood, Abby ran the clinic and met with women who were pregnant and contemplating getting an abortion.

One afternoon the clinic was short-staffed and Abby was called into one of the procedure rooms to help out. The abortionist (doctor who performs abortions) was performing an ultrasound-guided abortion and Abby was asked to hold the ultrasound probe to the belly of the woman having an abortion. What Abby witnessed next was so sickening and gut wrenching that it would change her views on abortion forever. Even though Abby was pro-choice and had worked for Planned Parenthood for 10 years AND had had two abortions of her own, she'd never witnessed an abortion. Actually watching the abortion happen, coupled with the abortionist's cavalier attitude made her absolutely sick.

I really liked this book and it gave me a lot to think about. Even though I don't personally agree with abortion, I enjoyed learning more about some of the things that go through the minds of women contemplating having one. I also enjoyed learning more about Planned Parenthood, since it's an organization that I don't know very much about. One of the things pertaining to Abby's job at Planned Parenthood that I found troubling was that as the economy started to go down she said that the higher-ups at Planned Parenthood started pressuring her to push women into getting abortions when she met with new clients who were pregnant and considering abortion. (Performing abortions is how Planned Parenthood makes most of their money.) Another thing that was difficult for Abby was that a new 5 or 6 story Planned Parenthood facility had opened up where late-term abortions on babies as old as 24 weeks were performed  That really didn't sit well with her.

This book was a real page turner and got really intense at parts. I liked it a lot and definitely recommend it to people that enjoy interesting reads.