In the story of abortion in our country, there are many characters besides the two main ones: mother and unborn child. Families, friends, and fathers all play a role in this decision. Then there are the architects of the act itself: doctors, medical personnel, and directors of abortion facilities. These architects are in many ways the greatest villains. A few of them, however, have used their experience as part of their powerful story of why they have pivoted 180 degrees and are now the loudest, most ardent pro-life advocates. Here are a few of their stories.

Dr. John Bruchalski

Dr. Bruchalski was raised in a Christian home with pro-life parents. In college, he was convinced by his female peers that being a good and compassionate medical doctor meant that he also had to be pro-abortion. When he specialized in obstetrics and gynecology (OBGYN) and began his residency, he found himself in very unethical and compromising positions. In his own words: “It was psychotic. In one room, I’m trying to save a child because the mother wanted it. In the other room, I had to get rid of a child that the woman, the mom, didn’t want.”

He began to question his worldview on abortion when a friend and colleague who was a NICU doctor pointed out that he was treating these unborn infants like tumors, which was denying them their humanity. Dr. Bruchalski decided to try giving OBGYN practice another approach, one that jibed with his pro-life roots. This Christian doctor demonstrated to him, through the compassionate treatment of his patients, that this was a better practice in helping women and giving them the best quality care.

He became so passionate for this type of prenatal care that he opened up his own life-affirming clinic. This ministry is not only ethical but “treat[s] all patients as individuals wholly in body, soul, and spirit.”

Dr. Bruchalski also founded Divine Mercy Care. This organization helps other life-affirming clinics like his by providing resources and funding.

Dr. Anthony Levatino

Dr. Levatino was a regular OBGYN who offered abortions at his practice. In an interview with Focus on the Family, he talks about the compartmentalization he imposed on himself as a medical doctor: “Dehumanization is such a tough term. OK? But keeping an emotional distance from your patients is essential to our work. … I remember my first day in medical school in anatomy class. I’m facing a corpse, and the first three-hour exercise is to skin this corpse, certain parts of the corpse. … Mine happened to be a woman. Yes, I intellectually know that she’s probably a mother and a wife and a sister and all of these things, but today she’s a collection of nerves, arteries, and muscles.”

The money was good. Dr. Levatino said that he could make just as much off three 15-minute abortions as he could being a woman’s OBGYN, seeing her eight or nine times and delivering her baby. Abortion was definitely much easier money.

During this time, he and his wife wanted to start a family. They had struggled with infertility for many years and eventually turned to adoption. This in and of itself was a struggle. They were on every adoption waiting list until finally they were able to adopt a little girl. Here he notes that, in hindsight, the reason there is such a backlog for adoptive families is because of doctors like him helping to abort “unwanted” babies.

Tragically, two months before her sixth birthday, their daughter was hit by a car and killed. He and his wife were devastated. When he returned to work and performed another abortion, this is what he said: “For the first time I looked — I mean, I really really looked — at that pile of body parts and I didn’t see our wonderful right to choose, and I didn’t see what a great doctor I was [for] helping her out, and I didn’t even see the $800 cash I just made in 15 minutes. All I could see was somebody’s son or daughter.”

He didn’t immediately stop performing abortions — it was gradual — but finally, 8-10 months after the loss of their daughter, Dr. Levatino stopped performing abortions and in fact became pro-life and even a Christian years later.

Abby Johnson

She was recruited to work for Planned Parenthood straight out of college. She was sold on the idea of “safe, legal, and rare” and that they were helping women. When she started out, she didn’t have an opinion on abortion, but pretty quickly she was made to understand that the pro-life protesters standing outside the clinic were the enemy. Within a few years, she had risen through the ranks to become a Planned Parenthood director. She talks about how abortion numbers were equivalent to what salespeople keep track of. She and her team were expected to make a certain quota each month. Counter-assertions notwithstanding, abortions are Planned Parenthood’s bread and butter.

Johnson herself had two abortions — one surgical, and the other with oral medication. She has a deep knowledge of the regret, sadness, and horror experienced by post-abortive moms. In 2009, Johnson reached her tipping point. She was asked to assist in an ultrasound-guided abortion. She saw the baby on the ultrasound trying to get away from the suction. The most horrific part was when the doctor she was assisting callously said “Beam me up, Scotty” as the vacuum did its murderous work. The scales fell off her eyes. She was done with abortion and with Planned Parenthood. Instead, God set her on a journey. She has written a book, The Walls Are Talking, detailing her own story and that of other former abortion clinic workers. She founded a ministry, And Then There Were None, to serve the abortion workers leaving the industry.

These amazing people and their stories about how God worked in their lives to leave the abortion industry behind have such hard stories to tell. They have lived a broken ideology and done its heinous bidding. But their ministries attest to the redemptive work that has been done in their lives. This is the sort of good news that needs to be blasted from the rooftops: There is hope, even for those still in the midst of this industry, for a heart change as well as forgiveness. They too can be transformed from killers to saviors.