Who Really Cares About Women?

In one of the most sensational news stories of 2009, former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson walked away from her 8-year career to join forces with the pro-life movement. In so doing Johnson joined a growing contingent of former abortion-industry workers and leaders who now work to unveil the truth about abortion and help those victimized by the industry. The fact is that abortion does not help women, but is a highly lucrative industry that profits from women's pain.

One of the early defectors from the abortion industry was Round Rock's own Carol Everett. In the 1970's and 80's, Everett worked as a director of abortion clinics in the Dallas area and eventually opened her own clinics. As she describes in her book Blood Money: Getting Rich Off A Woman's Right to Choose, Everett made $150,000 a year selling abortions and was on target to make $260,000 in 1983. She also describes her sales methods in the book, including 'family planning' services; prescribing low-dose birth control pills that were sure to fail, thus promising more abortion income for the clinic. As for 'caring for women,' Everett's harrowing description of fatally botched abortions reveals the callousness of an industry devoted to profit.

While she may have profited financially from these abortions, Everett was suffering from the consequences of abortion personally. After her then-illegal abortion in 1973, she became one of the many thousands of women to endure Post Abortion Stress syndrome (PAS); a debilitating depression that drives numerous women to drugs, alcohol, and sometimes suicide each year. Everett sought psychiatric care, but spent years coming to terms with her 'choice.'

As the testimonies of courageous witnesses like Carol Everett and Abby Johnson prove, the notion that abortion somehow helps women is a devastating lie. The truth is that abortion hurts women both physically and emotionally, and that the abortion industry, whose number one provider is Planned Parenthood, is financially thriving on both government subsidies and obscene profits. It is intellectually dishonest to claim to be both 'Pro-Life' and 'Pro-Planned Parenthood,' which is likely the reason Texas Alliance for Life endorsed Ken Paxton for Texas Speaker today. 

Although lambasted by the pro-abortion Left, Everett and Johnson are anything but silent. Johnson has been speaking out quite effectively over the past year, and Everett continues to work through her organization The Heidi Group, a Round Rock-based non-profit dedicated to providing alternatives to abortion and ministering to the needs of women and children, especially in low-income, inner-city areas.

Carol Everett's story will soon be available in film version, and she will be the special guest speaker at a luncheon in Round Rock next week sponsored by the Williamson County Republican Women.  WCRW has a history of hosting pro-life speakers each January in honor of Sanctity of Human Life month, and past speakers have included Dr. Joe Pojman of Texas Alliance for Life, Molly White of Women for Life International, and Dr. Elizabeth Graham of Texas Right to Life.  The luncheon will be on Wednesday, January 5, at 11:30AM.  RSVP at the WCRW website.