Annette Lopez with Dave Franco

I LIKED WHAT I DID FOR A LIVING. Between 2005 and 2010 I was working for the Planned Parenthood Los Angeles Teen Center seeking out schools and organizations that would allow me and the other educators in the office to make presentations about sex to middle and high school aged kids. Kids needed, especially in this sexually active day and age, to be armed with all the facts. 

We provided kids very useful information about things like: what is gender, what is sex, what are STDs and how to stay away from them, and where to get the pill and condoms (answer: at Planned Parenthood) if they chose not to abstain—but I highly recommended they all choose abstinence. I assured them that, in the event of a pregnancy, a trip to Planned Parenthood would result in thoughtful counseling and the presentation of their options. I felt good about what I was doing. 

As someone whose job revolved around sex, I took a lot of good-natured ribbing from my circle of friends who teased that I was a sex worker or sex doctor. It was all in good fun and I didn’t mind a bit. But it was after one such time that my boyfriend, Luis, said to me, “Hey, Annette, you seem to love life so much, and you love babies. How is it that you allow yourself to work for a company that harms them?” 

Sometime later, he asked me the same question, only with a slight alteration: “How is it that you allow yourself to work for a company that kills them?” 

I didn’t like his question. I went home that night and walked straight to my mom and complained about Luis. I knew what my mom would do next; she would defend me and question whether I wanted to be with somebody attempting to exert control over my life choices. But she didn’t. She seemed to show sympathy for his position. Without her rush to my defense, it actually made me ask: How could I? 

I didn’t like the way the question made me feel. 

Having grown up in the Catholic Church, I felt the need to return, to see if drawing closer to God could start to answer a few questions as to who I really was deep down. I also began listening to Spanish Catholic radio and found myself feeling like I was growing in my faith, feeling more Catholic than I ever had before. One afternoon the station promoted a Catholic conference featuring Eduardo Verástegui. Eduardo Verástegui? The ultra-handsome Spanish actor I’ve had a crush on for years? I’m so there! 

But when Eduardo took to the podium the afternoon of the conference, it was nothing like I had anticipated. He spoke about Planned Parenthood and what an awful, dark place it was. I was so mad. 

“I do not work at an awful place! That’s ridiculous!” I exclaimed to Luis. But I could tell it had me thinking. I wasn’t sure about my place in the world.

Soon after, our manager announced his suspicion that the teen center where I worked could be eliminated in a company restructure. He suggested that we train for employment at a Planned Parenthood clinic should it ever come to that, and then organized training at a clinic about 30 minutes away. This was a good thing. I needed to keep making money. Both my parents had just passed away and I had taken over the mortgage. 

On the first day of training, the supervisor asked me to shadow her as she delivered the results of a young woman’s pregnancy test. As we walked in, the supervisor told her of her positive test result and followed up with a question. “So, what do you want to do?” 

“I can’t have this baby,” the young woman replied. 

The supervisor immediately put a line through the ‘adoption’ option on her card without saying a word about it. She then circled: ‘abortion’. 

“OK, come with me,” she said, and led the young woman out to the scheduling desk. I stood there profoundly rattled. For five years I told teenagers with absolute conviction that if they were ever to become pregnant, the caring folks at Planned Parenthood would take them through all their options, including the many ways one can bless a family looking to adopt. Not only was adoption not given prominence, but it also wasn’t even mentioned. I felt numb. Had I been selling kids a lie this entire time? 

Later, I was at the front desk and watched in horror as the manager worked every angle, squeezing pregnant girls for money prior to their abortions, whether through the state, their insurance, their parents, or their meager bank accounts. Perhaps for the young girl who was in a state of panic and fear, it was hard for them to see through the charade. But for me, it wasn’t. Planned Parenthood was entirely about making a buck and didn’t care who they ran over to do it. 

Eduardo Verástegui’s words came flooding back to me. “Am I working at an awful, dark place?” 

A few days later, I was in the office putting away files when two coworkers, the supervisor, and our medical assistant, who was around seven months pregnant, struck up a conversation. 

“When are you taking maternity leave?” our supervisor asked. 

“In July,” the medical assistant replied. 

“Oh, that’s going to ruin everybody’s summer vacation plans. Maybe we should take you down to Marengo (a Planned Parenthood clinic that does late-term abortions) and get you taken care of.” 

The supervisor laughed heartily at her own sick joke, but it filled me with horror. In what world is it funny to make a joke about killing a woman’s baby, especially one that she was excited about having? 

I remember thinking that was the last straw, that I was leaving and never coming back, but unfortunately, there was one more straw to add to the camel’s back. The manager said to me, very kindly, “Hey, Annette, if you ever want to see a procedure, just let me know. I think every employee really should see one. After all, it is what we do.” 

Not care. Not counseling. Not women’s health. Not information or education. We terminated the lives of babies for money. I had to get out of there. But how? How would I make ends meet? 

Perhaps it was a case of God knowing what would make me excited enough to get off my couch, but it so happened that another Conference for Life featuring Eduardo Verástegui was in town and my sister wanted to take me. I had been mad at Eduardo for his comments. But now he had my attention. 

At the conference, held in the Los Angeles Convention Center before 15,000 people, Eduardo took to the stage. One of the first things he did was introduce Abby Johnson—a former abortion worker who told the story of quitting Planned Parenthood just a few months prior when God moved her to flee the darkness. 

As soon as Abby took the microphone, I started to weep, and didn’t stop throughout her entire presentation. As it was coming to a close, I turned to Luis. “I have to go meet her!” I said with panic in my voice. 

“Right now? You’re going to go down there right now?” 

“I have to!” 

And with that, I jumped out of my seat and began running down to the floor crying the entire way. I saw security in front of where Eduardo and Abby were coming off the stage as the audience loudly clapped and cheered. I didn’t know if I was going to go under his legs or if at five feet, I was going to have to jump over him, but I was going to get to Abby. 

As I arrived, the security guard held forward his hands. “Whoa, now. What’s going on here?” 

“I have to talk to Abby!” Just then I saw her. “AAAAABYYYYY!” I screamed. She looked at me, the wet and red-faced little Mexican woman trying to break security. “I work for Planned Parenthood, and I want to quit!” 

It seemed to stop her in her tracks. 

She turned from where she was walking and came over to me, still sobbing. She reached out her arms. I collapsed in her embrace. I was holding on to someone who had the strength I needed. I found myself not wanting to let go. 

“When do you want to quit?” she said in my ear. 

“I’m not going back.” 

“Good. You don’t need to. I’ll help you with whatever you need.” Her eyes said she meant every word. “As soon as you quit, call me.” 

We embraced again. I cried again. Eduardo, my heartthrob, was standing right there and I never even looked at him. 

I’ll help you with whatever you need. She had no way of knowing, but God was about to use those words to start one of the most significant movements to save the unborn. 

Where Are They Now? Annette Lopez

Annette is a homeschooling mother of five young children: four boys and one girl. She overflows with joy and laughs easily. She is serious about her roles as a wife and mother. Anyone who is fortunate enough to interact with Annette is uplifted and sees the love of God on display. Annette is also a former Planned Parenthood employee…five years of her life that she deeply regrets.

Annette started working for Planned Parenthood as a college intern, filing papers and doing basic office work. She heard that they had a community education program for Latina women.

“My sister got pregnant out of wedlock, as well as my niece and my friend,” she said. “I really thought that my community needs to know how to prevent this. I was also starting a sexual relationship at that time, so it emboldened me. I thought, ‘Hey, I can do this safely. Smartly.’”

After Annette graduated, she began to work in South L.A. at a Planned Parenthood teen center.

“My reasoning was that I wanted to help the teens in the community. Throughout my time at Planned Parenthood, I never really thought deeply about abortion,” she said. “My main goal was to teach them how to practice safe sex and keep these kids from getting pregnant. My focus was always on the girl, never the baby.”

While Annette grew up Catholic, her faith was not something that was deeply ingrained into her. Her family would attend Mass occasionally, she was baptized, confirmed, and would take the sacraments, but it was not a part of her everyday life or something she put much thought into or saw lived out.

“I was the youngest of four and I was always at my mom’s skirts,” she said. “I heard conversations that made me realize that if you got pregnant, there were things you could do to get rid of it. Abortion was never really talked about, but special teas would be mentioned. It made me feel that getting pregnant was getting in trouble. All of this played into my misconceptions about abortion. I know it sounds crazy to me, but the life of the baby never really occurred to me.”

Annette’s program was community-based and had many ways to target teens and make sure that they knew that should they “get in trouble,” Planned Parenthood was the place for them to go.

“We had a program called Peer Advocates. I would recruit kids from the schools to be the go-to person within each school,” she said. “We would send them into their schools to hand out condoms. In the classroom we would demonstrate with condoms and sex toys. I did always try to teach abstinence, but by the time I left I noticed the strong push by Planned Parenthood staff to encourage kids not to talk to or listen to their parents.”

Initially, Annette’s work was focused mainly on talking about gender, sex, birth control.

“Later, they added more about sexual communication and in-depth topics such as anal sex and all different types of things,” she said. “Most importantly, if a kid were to get pregnant, they needed to go to Planned Parenthood. The goal was to get the kids to trust us over their parents.”

At that time, Annete had met the man who would later become her husband. She started working with the teens at her church and her faith was growing, and started to realize that her heart was not in her work.

“My boyfriend was so kind and gentle with me at the time,” she said. “He explained to me that he didn’t understand how I could be so wonderful with all my nieces and nephews and loved children, but then work for a place that profited from killing them. I had literally never thought about it like that. I started to realize that I needed to get out.”

It was still hard for Annette. She was so invested in her community, and she cared about the teens she worked for. She felt conflicted and still had not made her mind up about where she stood on things. Her boyfriend and future husband invited her to a Catholic family conference. Eduardo Verástegui, Latino heartthrob and outspoken Catholic, was speaking there. Annette was so excited to see him as she was a huge fan and watched his telenovelas.

“When I heard him start speaking against Planned Parenthood and abortion, all these emotions came up in me. I became angry,” she said. All Planned Parenthood’s talking points that had been drilled into me started swarming through my mind. My boyfriend could tell that I was upset.”

After the conference, Annette continued to be conflicted about her work as an educator talking to teens about all types of sexual situations and directing them to Planned Parenthood. However, she did start to think more critically about the things she had been taught.

“We would talk to the kids, sometimes using crass language about all kinds of things including touching yourself and all diverse types of sexualities. We talked to them about literally anything and everything. I often did not feel right about it given their ages and that their parents had no idea,” she said.

There came a point where there was talk of cutting the education program down.

“They asked me if I wanted to start working at the clinic. I thought, why not?”

Annette started on a Monday.

“Very quickly, I started to see that it was all a lie,” she said.

Annette was in training and witnessed a young girl who came in for a pregnancy test. She went in with her trainer, and they told the girl she was pregnant. The trainer asked her what she wanted to do.

“The girl had no time to process,” Annette said. “It was clear that she was scared. The only thing that she could say was, ‘I can’t have a baby.’”

That was that. Annette remembers looking over at the chart. The woman scratched off adoption and circled abortion, although that was never even discussed. The girl was given options about medication abortion vs. surgical abortion, both of which she qualified for at her stage of pregnancy.

“The staff was trained to push toward surgical abortion because that is more lucrative for them,” she said. “I felt nauseous. I felt scared. My heart was hurting for her and the decision she was making.”

It occurred to Annette that all this time, she had been telling teens that this place was so great. They would go to Planned Parenthood and get the best care available. They would be treated with respect. That is not what she was seeing.

“The supervisor was so cold and couldn’t care less for the patients. I realized everything I had taught those young, vulnerable teens about sex and Planned Parenthood was wrong,” she said.

Annette started praying fervently and listening to Catholic radio. There was another pro-life conference featuring Eduardo, and she decided to go.

“I was driving to the conference and praying that God would just show me what to do. I told Him that I had an open heart and an open mind to what He wanted,” she said.

What Annette didn’t know was that Eduardo was not the only pro-life speaker scheduled for that conference. Abby Johnson was also speaking.

“When Abby started speaking, I just started crying. I knew God was showing me. This is what He had for me,” she said. “I told my boyfriend that I MUST talk to her. I walked all the way around. She had security around her, but I was either going around, under or over them. I was going to get to her,” Annette laughs.

She screamed Abby’s name. She screamed that she was also a Planned Parenthood worker, and she wanted out. Abby came to her at once and the two embraced.

“Abby embraced me and assured me that I didn’t have to worry. She said that she would help,” Annette said. “I told Luis that I never wanted to go back there again, and he was incredibly supportive of that. I gave my notice and they tried to keep me, but I resisted.”

“After talking to Abby, I had the strength I needed to resist them and had moral support. I had everything I needed to support my family financially. Abby encouraged me so much.”

Abby connected Annette to a pro-life resource center in L.A. At first, Annette was not fully comfortable saying that she was pro-life, but they were so kind to her regardless. She trained, and a few weeks before her wedding, when her finances were down to almost nothing, the resource center called and offered her a job.

As Annette has had time to process and heal, she has started to realize how much each abortion worker’s life impacts others.

“I recruited my niece to be a peer advocate at Planned Parenthood, and later she had an abortion,” she said. “I know she needs healing. I feel guilty for recruiting her. I constantly pray for all the teens that I encouraged to go to Planned Parenthood. That guilt will always be a consequence for me, but I know that I am forgiven.”

Annette knew her calling was to be a homemaker for her husband and a mother for their children. Four months after she started at the pro-life center, she became pregnant.

“The center was so flexible with me,” she said. “They could not have been more understanding. I had the privilege of walking a young woman through the process of dealing with her own pregnancy. I told her I was also pregnant. We formed a friendship and still keep in touch. It was beautiful.”

On Annette’s last day at the center before she would leave to be a full-time mom, she had a very abortion minded woman come in. The boyfriend was open to keeping the baby, but the girl was so hardened.

“It was like looking in a mirror and seeing myself and how I used to be,” she said. “Later I got a call that she chose life for her baby, and I had an opportunity to speak with her and celebrate her choice. What a gift!”

Today, Annette is a busy woman as she homeschools and is intentional about instilling her faith into her kids and growing in her own faith and relationship with her husband.

“I had an idea about motherhood that was totally skewed. God has taught me so much through being a mother,” she said. “To be humble, to trust Him, to be patient. They are their own people. Sometimes I will blow up at my kids and I have to step back and ask God for help. Now I have no doubts that God will give me that peace and joy, even if it is little by little. Now I know I don’t have to be perfect. My kids don’t have to be perfect. I just want them to trust God and love Him.”

“If you are an abortion worker and on the fence about calling for help,” Annette said, “Their [ATTWN’s] love is unconditional. It is life changing. They will help you.”

The fruits of the spirit are clearly evident in Annette’s life and walk with Jesus. As the founding client of And Then There Were None, it has been a joy and a humbling experience to walk with her, love her, and have her love reciprocated. As her family is her sole focus, she has not been able to attend many retreats, but she does love meeting and forming relationships with other Quitters and being recognized at our “Quitters Ball” as our very first Quitter, the one who inspired Abby to start an entire movement of former abortion workers by founding And Then There Were None.