Planned Parenthood Drops Lawsuit

After losing its initial battle in court in its attempt to silence its former director, a Texas Planned Parenthood has dropped its lawsuit. The abortion business targeted former director Abby Johnson, who recently quit and became pro-life, and the local pro-life group that helped her conversion.

Johnson had been the director of the Planned Parenthood center in this southeast Texas city but turned in her resignation on October 6 after years of a local pro-life group helping her see the problem with abortion.

Johnson quit after seeing an ultrasound of an abortion.
Planned Parenthood officials hit both Johnson and the Coalition for Life with restraining orders requiring them not to disclose information about the abortions done at its facility.

But, District Judge J.D. Langley issued a ruling earlier this month saying Planned Parenthood did not provide sufficient evidence that Johnson breached a confidentiality agreement concerning identity of an abortion practitioner who works at Planned Parenthood.

Now, the Alliance Defense Fund, which has provided legal help to Johnson and the Brazos Valley Coalition for Life, tells LifeNews.com Planned Parenthood has dropped its lawsuit.

Planned Parenthood falsely claimed she violated a confidentiality agreement and breached an employment contract, though she never had one with the abortion center, ADF legal counsel Steven Aden explained. “This was the latest in a series of national Planned Parenthood scandals,” he told LifeNews.com yesterday. “It wasn't about one woman or one clinic. Planned Parenthood is a national organization that has been kept afloat by hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding."

"The American people need to understand that this organization has been involved in scandal after scandal and has never owned up to them. Like so many Planned Parenthood lawsuits, this lawsuit was baseless, so we are pleased that it has been withdrawn," he continued. The order withdrawing the lawsuit, Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas v. Johnson, was issued by the Brazos County District Court, 85th Judicial District.

In his decision, Judge Langley also ruled that Planned Parenthood provided no evidence to back up its allegations that Johnson took confidential patient records out of Planned Parenthood on the day she resigned. The judge also denied a Planned Parenthood request to prevent Johnson from seeking any lawsuit until a trial or any other court action had been made.

Dropping the lawsuit opens the door for her to offer more specifics about her work at Planned Parenthood and the reasons she resigned. Employed with Planned Parenthood for eight years, Johnson, the 2008 employee of the year for Planned Parenthood’s southeast Texas region, says she was put under duress by her employer in August when her center was economically pressured to perform more abortions to raise profits.

After recently being required to assist in an ultrasound-guided abortion procedure which she observed on screen, Johnson decided to resign.