Adrienne Moton would see Jacob "every time it was dark, and I was trying to sleep."
Jacob was a 30-week-old baby who was killed in Kermit Gosnell's infamous slaughterhouse. Moton worked there.
She also testified about — and went to prison for — cutting the spines of 10 babies who were born alive.
She had taken a photo on her phone of Jacob in 2008, pink and looking very much alive. She was fairly certain he could have survived. She sobbed on the stand, remembering the horrors she had witnessed.
Moton was suicidal around the time she was arrested for her work with Gosnell. Like many women who get caught up in abortion work, she was desperate, needed a job and came to see herself as part of the Gosnell family (Gosnell's wife also spent time in prison, pleading guilty to participating in an abortion after 24 weeks).
"I was good pals with his niece in high school, and together we did small jobs in 'Uncle Kermit's' medical office," she's written. "When my life started breaking down, the doctor and his wife, Pearl, let me come live with them. Years later, when I was divorced, broke, broken, and facing homelessness, they came to my rescue by giving me a job (all payment to me was under the table) in their medical practice."
In prison, Moton began life-giving work. "Ladies were always coming to me to get advice on their situations and talk about their problems ... Even the guards would come to me. So, I decided to pursue an education in the counseling field. This is helpful for me as well to heal. I can't help nobody if I ain't right. I am doing this for myself as well as others."
I've met Moton many times over the years — at a premiere for a documentary telling her conversion story, at the March for Life, on the road. She is a speaker for And Then There Were None, a ministry and outreach program for people working at abortion clinics who want a way out. And Then There Were None was founded by Abby Johnson, who, unbeknownst to Moton at the time, was praying for her. Johnson is a former Planned Parenthood director in Texas.
And Then You Were None offers unconditional support to abortion clinic staff. They help them with new employment, working to meet both material and spiritual needs.
"I love going on retreats with my 'tribe sisters'!" Adrienne has said. "When I go on a retreat, it is like I get to release. We come together. We lean on each other. Everyone there has, to some extent, experienced the same things as me. I can just be comfortable and share. For some of us, it is the only time we can let it out. It is like peeling layers off, even if it can only happen once a year. It is like we are chipping away at our pain together."
Moton has an exquisite singing voice. I've heard her sing "Amazing Grace" from the depths of her heart. Johnson, Moton and the other "quitters" who make up And Then There Were None should be household names. They show the truth about abortion, because they've seen it in abhorrent detail.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and author of the new book "A Year With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living." She is also chair of Cardinal Dolans pro-life commission in New York and is on the board of the University of Mary. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com.
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