How a Former Abortion Doctor Became Pro-Life

Get involved in promoting the sanctity of human life with Focus on the Family see life 2021.

It's a six episode digital experience to help you embrace the pro-life cause with truth, compassion and empathy. See like 2021 premieres on Focus on the Family's website and social media channels on Friday, July 16 at 7 PM. Then each week will debut a new episode equip you on the pro-life issues of our day will hear from respected leaders and see amazing testimonies from women and men whose lives have been impacted. So join us for this life-changing six week experience online. Premiering on Friday, July 16 also mark your calendar now for the culmination of sea life 2021 with the celebrate life live experience in Dallas-Fort Worth on August 28 for more details, visit Focus on the Family.com/C line and I just intensively was studying the Bible with direction and understanding and at some point and I don't exactly know when but it became so clear to me that God is a God of life that this character that's his heart. There should be no question that's Dr. Patty KeyBank of former abortion Dr. for Planned Parenthood.

She joins us on Focus on the Family to share the powerful story of how God brought her out of the abortion industry and transformed her life. Thanks for joining us your hostess post-Pres. and Dr. Jim Daly and I'm John Fuller, John the Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer.

He was prophetic when warned over 40 years ago about the slippery slope of abortion and how it can lead a society to devalue all human life. And I think we have witnessed that the importance of this issue really can't be overstated.

And as you mentioned our guest today is a former abortion doctor she believe she was helping women until she started reading Scripture and came to know God for herself, who is the author of life, and today she's passionate about sharing God's heart for life and offering women alternatives to abortion, and course.

That's one of our goals here at Focus on the Family as well and were just six weeks away from our pro-life event, the celebrate life life experience and every week leading up to that event posting and inspiring like video episode on the website we are and we encourage you to check out that first episode available today and make plans to join us for the live event happening in Dallas-Fort Worth on Saturday, August 28. It's our prayer, God would use the event to raise up when some advocates for life.

We do hope you can join us on the 28th and you can find out more about that event and you can view the new online episode today. It's all@focusonthefamily.com/broadcast and Dr. Gabe Inc. is an OB/GYN and worked at Planned Parenthood for three years and she's actively now involved in the pro-life movement and has written a book called unexpected choice and abortion doctors journey to pro-life and you can look for a copy of that in our website Patty, welcome to Focus on the Family thinking. I'm actually thrilled to talk with you because you have such a unique perspective, given the journey God has put you upon.

I mean, that's amazing how are you first exposed to abortion. Let's start there. That's a good question. I grew up in a very liberal household and I remember talking to my dad when he was an intern and he was.

He talked about the illegal abortions and women coming to the ER and infected and bleeding so I kinda went down a path of being pro-choice never really thinking I would become an abortion doctor that wasn't really wasn't my plan with all the history clearly laid women dying are becoming physically injured by illegal abortions even that's what was so prevalent among these women's groups when I was in medical school and I studied Roe V Wade read a lot of books on it. An interesting thing is answer between my my dad and what I was hearing and I didn't know that the numbers were inflated of the number of women dying every year from illegal abortion correctly. Just pick the numbers well I suppose I had my aha moment when I was reading Bernard Nathanson's book, Dr. Nathanson is a former abortion doctor. He has since died, but he talks about pre-Roe V Wade, how they knew that the only way they were going to get public support was to inflate the numbers of women dying of women that mildly. Abortion is illegal abortions that the deaths and injury and because I had to really rally support for Realty weight and so they really inflated the numbers and of course I didn't know that and just really stop me in my tracks and and I thought okay the foundation for doing what I was doing was gone because it was predicated on women's lives providing good healthcare Sadie with his lies, keeping them from some unsafe thing and I remember the women in the pro-choice women's groups had significant history and they would talk about their experiences and ill. It was awful. I think we have learned so much since Roe V Wade ultrasound was probably not even available in early Roe V Wade. It was just in its infancy and so there wasn't that option and we didn't know everything we know now so in the mid-90s 1990s when I was working at Planned Parenthood and I said was just tissue you know it's it's just tissue. Let's go back to 1995.

You begin working at Planned Parenthood describe. I think the first two years you were part-time and new third in your third year he became full-time to just describe the decision your own practice. You sold within the new moved into full-time eventually with Planned Parenthood. I had my own practice and is very busy in obstetrics delivering babies and the solo of abortion doctor wanted to retire so he made an arrangement with Planned Parenthood and they approached me and asked me if I would do abortions one day a week there abortion today. They didn't do abortions every day.

They did them only as often as they had people so I would be doing delivering babies like the day before and the day after and then I go to the abortion day, which at the time wasn't too bad and amenable when I think back, and I think that's kind of mentally schizophrenic, you know, working really hard to save my OB patients and their babies in and then the next day going in doing pregnancy terminations that plant a seed of doubt for you a menu describe like that now was at the beginning of your uneasiness or your wrestling with this was that contradiction that had to live through not really.

I think sometimes as it, in order to do abortions. We put pretty thick blinders on. Stay focused.

That's that's the big part of the story right here just in essence, a scientist in your performing a scientific routine can't take care of this woman's difficulty in that regard. While you're at Planned Parenthood you wanted to do more to invest in women's healthcare and Planned Parenthood didn't respond that well to that what what was that contradiction that you saw working at Planned Parenthood when they made me an offer to close my practice and work there full-time. I don't even remember how I considered it, but I did and I ended up closing my practice and working a full-time and again. Still just doing abortion day and then doing non-abortion things on the other days that I was working that which could be OB, ultrasound, dating, ultrasounds, GYN exams, but in that healthcare. The desire you kinda were met with a cold shoulder is the way I read it that they weren't as interested in providing healthcare. There were about queuing up the abortions and much keep it moving forward. Basically, did I read that correctly.

Yeah, make no mistake there about money, and abortion is there top moneymaker and I remember that that we had a point where we break even.

We had to do. At least I came of his eight or 10 procedures to breakeven on abortion day and course and we had considerably more procedures. So then anything above that would be profit at the at that time it was pages and pages and big thick manual about protocol and what you can do and what you can't do a can say what you can't say what you job is and it was very clear to me that I was a technician. It wasn't my job really to counsel or do anything that isn't in the manual. It is in fact you had a woman show up at the clinic who was struggling with that decision describe that interaction. What was the outcome. Like I said in the book I dimly see the patient until she got into the exam room. The procedure room, which was a very small room and she'd already been paid or money and counseled signed all the forms had her labs are ultrasound and then she comes into the room and I have about two minutes to talk with them before I start the procedure and I always kinda get a feeling for if she was really ambivalent. She was clearly undecided and I said you seem to be struggling. She said was she really didn't want to do this, which I paid her money and she traveled to get there and so she might've just go through with it and I so you you can reschedule if if you're unsure, reschedule come back in when you sure take more time you have to do this today.

She was so afraid she wasn't in need of money back and I said you will get your money back, but she said no.

I just want to go through with this, as I did and I probably said that one too many times where I said you know you you don't seem to have your mind made up in, and maybe she just reschedule that was kinda what I would say if they seem to be kind of uncertain I guess that wasn't the company line. The handlers were happy with yeah that's terrible that you do in the book describe the tumultuous environment of Planned Parenthood to speak to the clinic itself a lot of lot of people listening have never had that experience.

Obviously they've had a friend, but describe what your experience was as a physician working in their the cleanliness or the lack thereof. The orderliness of the lack thereof with the clinic itself was a small building. It really wasn't all that clean and in the three years that I was involved with Planned Parenthood. There I never saw anybody from health department never and that the people that they had counseling were not necessarily professional counselors but all they had to do is read the script and get them to sign. I many years later I went back into the same building and it had been converted first into a branch of the pregnancy resource Center, which is a pro wildlife group and but the first time I went into the building. I think I lasted about 20 seconds before I had to run back out now is after it had been cleaned up and I know the pregnancy resource Center and the founder is a good friend of mine and she was telling me about when first while they bought the building anonymously and name actually cattle on a thousand hills. They bought the building and she said when they went there it was just filthy and I said yeah I mean I just didn't have that level of cleanliness that private clinic would have let me just add in their petty, which is so important so many states that support abortion do so little to regulate those clinics that they are there just filthy and so far under the standard, and there have been some courageous people that have had you try to document that on video and they are the ones that end up in jail.

It's so bizarre and everybody's claiming to be pro-woman and yet they let these women go into these environments that are discussed. Things are so far below even Third World standards.

In some cases that it's terrible. It shows you their support of the ideology over truly the well-being of a woman and that that's plain to see. If you fight in this arena. Spiritually, you see it as clear as day, and again you see both sides of this and it's that's what's so amazing about your story in that context, let's move to your spiritual development.

I mean you're working at Planned Parenthood a friend. I believe invite you to come to a church around the corner from the clinic. If I remember the story correctly just mentioned there was a new pastor this church and I wasn't really looking for a church kind of going down the New Age path, searching you know people who are in New Age and other things are searching and he just cannot offhand said they have a new pastor you might like this church and I had I didn't know anybody in the church, very small, and that they had a new young pastor and I was just captivated and for the first time in my life.

I just felt so drawn to this church and to the Bible and I it's like they talk about it in the Bible about the scales coming falling off your eyes and so I started reading the Bible and and starting to understand it and I about a year and 1/2. I just intensively studied the Bible. I didn't have a real job at the time and I just intensively was studying the Bible with direction and understanding it and at some point and I don't exactly know when but it became so clear to me that that God is a God of life.

That's his character. That's his heart. There should be no question that's powerful people can't miss that you're coming from being an abortion Dr. going to this church, reading the Scripture deeply, perhaps for the first time in your conclusion is a very smart person is God is a God of life. That's what that is what we proclaim. That's our only relief with the abortion industry is that it's the exact opposite of God's heart for his creation than what happened.

While that's all God and unite. I can't take any credit for any of this journey because I wasn't I wasn't looking as searching for something bigger than you know what at the beginning another piece of the puzzle that so important is that in 2004 I started working with a very solid pro-life Catholic doctor in our small town.

She was unapologetically pro-life and I was still kind of in that I wasn't admitting that I had changed and I guess basically all my friends and most my family were Pro choice and but just listening to her and her courage and she gave me strength to start thinking more of of that and so by 2006, which was the first vote yes for life campaign where really kind of the first time I really stepped out and said you know I have changed so that some 2001 to 2006. And that's five years of gradual painful realization that that's you know that's the sanctification process of what happens. That's what so wonderful about the Lord removing the scales for more than that we begin to see what is true, but he is a God of life as you said mess was so beautiful you found out that a pro-life woman I think she was in had been praying for you for 10 years. I love this aspect of your story because it shows that the prayers of the righteous avail with much right so this is awesome.

The people were praying for you by name. They knew what was taking place, but they still took the time to really a fair definition to love you enough to pray for you, she still prays for me that is good. She's 90 to be 91 this month and you'd never met her. I had noted that process know she wrote me a letter in December 2006 and I was stunned and she said this was now 10 years that she had been praying for me based on an article in the local newspaper and she saw my name in and what caught her attention was. I said something that wasn't my goal to do a abortions full-time and she hung on that statement and started praying for me and then wrote me a letter when it through the vote yes for life campaign.

I actually ended up doing a TV commercial or basically I said who I was and what I used to do and that I was asking them to vote yes for life on this ballot initiative ballot initiative and so she saw that which was confirmation of her 10 years and then sheet she took the initiative to write me a letter didn't have the right address and went to the wrong clinic, but it found me and I was just flabbergasted. I was just stunned. It is a beautiful story of the things we can do you know also the things we should not do in that regard. When you look at the battle in a group we see this is a spiritual battle know were all created in God's image, even those that are on the abortion side are created in God's image and we need to respect the certainly as believers in Christ. So what are the things that you've learned Patty about the battle and especially being in both camps as you have been what are the lessons that you can share with us in ways to be effective in communicating God's truth that he loves them. He cares for them, but that he is a God of life. I love that description. What have you learned from both perspectives. When I was doing abortions and there would be people protesting on the sidewalk is IV driving in. They never really screamed at me or anything but it never made me reconsider what I was doing and I the more I think about it were not going to make progress if we just stand on opposite sides of the street call each other names right and so really the reason I wrote the book was.

I want both sides to see the other side. I want people to beached. I want to challenge their thinking, because I hear things that are quite true on both sides, so I really want one people to to have a little more understanding. In that regard because again I want people to walk away with something in their hands that specificity of what to do. What is that or two or three things that actually do make a difference. Words are important. I think of the women who have been hurt by abortion and NL. They don't come up to you and say not been hurt by abortion. Well now they come up to me because I think they feel like I'm safe but I think of the churches and nobody wants to add pain to women and people have been hurt by abortion but in churches often times the things that the pastor say or the other very well-meaning people are very hurtful and I think we need to make our churches a safe place for all sinners. I think of the women have had an abortion could be five years ago 10 years ago. 20 years ago all families. I believe have been affected by abortion. They just don't know it. It might've been a grandmother who might have an abortion.

Pre-Roe V Wade or post-Roe V Wade, I just really believe everybody has been affected. Sure, a petty right at the end here unmindful as we always are drawn that people listening women particularly, Butman, to where abortion is impacted and directly woman made the choice she may have never shared that with the money and she's in the church. Now she's given her life to the Lord and that was a decision that may have been made 10 years ago.

20 years ago who knows 40 years ago and she still carries the burden and obviously as a doctor but also as a Christian woman. What would you say to her now tell someone speak up.

Confront your pastor, not in front of the whole church. You know, pull them aside and say you know and I respect that that your pro-life and everything that I've been hurt by abortion.

I'm sure there's other people and we need to find a different language. We need to find compassion, we are all sinners. If a pastor of a church doesn't hear now and then from somebody is churches been hurt by abortion, then that pastor should wonder, why aren't people speaking up. How can I be a safe place. Maybe just need to announce that you know that your open to meeting with people have been hurt by abortion you not not judgmental and you want to lead them to a path of healing or provide resources and I remember a friend of mine said something about making our neighborhoods safe, you do you know your neighbor. Do you have a young woman who might be in a crisis are are we reaching out to them early, just in our own little world where were surrounded by the people that look and act like us. I quoted Moshe Diana to conference.

I did a couple weeks ago and he was freedom fighter for Israel and he said if we want to make peace we don't talk to our friends.

We have to talk to our enemies so we have to reach out in some way, even if it's not about this topic for me. I have to force myself. I have to think okay how can I reach out talk about the weather talk about something and so for for my family. I just try and love them where they are. Love them where they are and and hope that they will see the change in me, and eventually asked, you know, or read the book starting with Betty, this is great.

I'm reminded of that wonderful Scripture Romans 24.

Don't you know it's God's kindness leads one to repentance and that pulses through me when I'm engaging with people. Planned Parenthood of the abortion industry remain a role for that matter, the LGBT Q community as well. That's how they're going to be attracted to the gospel. That's what the Lord does just knowing that he cares for every person again and that nobody's beyond his reach.

That's what I hear you saying loud and clear. We need to pray for those people and I want to congratulate you again, for you know, again, you had to have an open heart. You're in the mire of the battle when you're working for Planned Parenthood. You could've easily kept the blinders on. But something in your heart You moving in a direction toward God's heart and I'm very intrigued by that because that is the great part of the journey for everyone who sees the truth and embraces God's love moves forward in that regard, and I want to encourage the listener to get Patty's great book.

It is a wonderful read unexpected choice. If you can make a gift to Focus on the Family for any amount so will say thank you by sending you a copy of her book and let me just reinforce the fact that the average abortion. Patty's probably 600 $700.

I would think maybe a little more.

Now we can actually work together to save the baby's life for $60 and that's what it is. The metrics are there. We been added now for 17 years, we saved almost 500,000 babies lives through our optional Excel program and we know the numbers working with the wonderful pregnancy resource clinics around the country putting those ultrasound machines in those clinics, allowing the abortion minded woman to see that baby and about 60% of those abortion minded women will choose life. Once they see the baby. Patty knows that she's been in it she knows exactly how this women will react when they see that baby growing inside of them. Step up and let's do it. $60. Let's say the baby's life join the support team for option ultrasound is Jim is describing. It's a six dollar gift to save the baby's life and our way of saying thank you. As you mentioned is to send a copy of this book, unexpected choice and abortion doctors journey to pro-life. Call us today to donate court option ultrasound and get your copy of the book 800 K in the work-family or check the episode notes for all the details petty.

Again, thank you for being with us.

Thank you for your courage and bless you future. Thank you on behalf of Jim Daly and the entire team. Thanks for joining us today for Focus on the Family I'm John Fuller inviting you back. As we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ