CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- At a recent conference in Illinois, former abortion workers told the stories of the work that they once thought was helping women, and how they were converted to the pro-life position.<\/p>\n\t\u201cWe wanted to better understand the mindset of people who work in the abortion industry,\u201d said conference planner Ann Scheidler, who serves as the vice president of the Pro-Life Action League.<\/p>\n
\tShe told CNA that the purpose of the \u201cCONVERTED: From Abortion Provider to Pro-Life Activist\u201d conference was to hear what former abortion workers had to say about why they entered the abortion industry and what led them to leave it.<\/p>\n
\tWhile abortion doctors and clinic workers are sometimes viewed as heartless by pro-lifers, some are actually \u201cextremely compassionate people\u201d who are misguided and believe that they are \u201chelping women,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s very good for us to understand where these people are coming from,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\tThe Sept. 22 conference was held Crowne Plaza O\u2019Hare Hotel in Rosemont, Ill., and featured eight former abortion workers who told their personal stories of conversion.<\/p>\n
\tScheidler said that each one had a different story, but they shared the experience of realizing, \u201cThis isn\u2019t what I thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe decision to leave can be \u201cdifficult,\u201d she continued. They often find that \u201ceverybody they know is pro-abortion,\u201d so leaving their job means finding an entirely new community and peer group.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThat\u2019s asking a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWhile the lack of resources has made this transition especially difficult in the past, a new ministry by former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson is now helping those who wish to leave the abortion industry but are struggling in their decision to do so.<\/p>\n
\tJohnson spoke about her ministry, And Then There Were None, which has had contact with 30 abortion workers in recent months.<\/p>\n
\tDrawing about 100 attendees, primarily pro-life advocates who talk to women outside abortion clinics and sometimes speak with clinic workers, the conference was deemed a success by organizers.<\/p>\n
\tOne presenter, Dr. John Bruchalski, is currently a pro-life OB\/GYN in northern Virginia. However, he performed abortions during his first two years of residency.<\/p>\n
\tAlthough Bruchalski grew up in a Catholic household, he lost his faith in the 1970s and '80s. Wanting to be a \u201cgreat\u201d doctor, he felt that he needed to perform abortions, which he believed would help women to be \u201chappier\u201d and \u201chealthier.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIt was a combination of factors that changed his mind, he told CNA. Part of it was the experience of performing abortions.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAs you do the procedure, you begin to kill another human being up close,\u201d he said, describing the experience of watching \u201cthe life drain from them\u201d from just inches away.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThat reality goes through your hand and into your heart,\u201d he reflected.<\/p>\n
\tPerforming abortions \u201chardens your heart every time,\u201d because you have to continually justify your actions to yourself, he explained.<\/p>\n
\tIn addition, he said that there was more and more emerging data showing that abortion and contraception were not healthy for women, but had some \u201cpretty significant side effects,\u201d both physically and psychologically.<\/p>\n
\tThere was also a relational aspect to his conversion, as a neonatologist whom he worked with challenge him to re-think his ideas.<\/p>\n
\tFinally, he said that he experienced a spiritual renewal, brought about in part by two pilgrimages he attended.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAll those pieces came together in 1989,\u201d he said, explaining that he was forced to \u201cadjust my heart and my whole outlook.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tNow, he tries to witness to others, helping them to see the reality of abortion. In 1994, he founded Tepeyac Family Center, a pro-life practice in Fairfax, Va. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIf it\u2019s so darn good, why do so few doctors perform abortions?\u201d he asks medical students when he gives talks.<\/p>\n
\tBruchalski said that he knows other former abortion doctors who have converted, and each has a different story. He believes that God speaks to each person in his or her own way.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHe spoke to me in a language that I intrinsically understood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n
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Washington D.C., Sep 29, 2012 \/ 05:03 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- At a recent conference in Illinois, former abortion workers told the stories of the work that they once thought was helping women, and how they were converted to the pro-life position.<\/p>\n
\t&ldqu…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\n
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