Looking back now, it is difficult to understand. But when the Planned Parenthood clinic that I worked for advanced me from receptionist to the person whose duties it was to strain for the baby pieces and rinse them off, I was matter-of-fact about it—it didn’t bother me in the least.
Planned Parenthood, with their high respect of my skills, good pay, and bonuses was my ticket to a better life.
When they ultimately advanced me to work inside the procedure room, the frightened ladies would reach out for me. I would take their trembling hands, sometimes with rosaries in them, and think to myself, “What are they crying about? They’re the ones who made the appointment, aren’t they?”
It also never bothered me that our clinic purposely rotated the abortion procedures so that they never fell on the same day twice; thereby throwing all the anti-abortionist prayer groups off our schedule. My bosses didn’t want to risk doing abortions on the days the prayer groups were on the sidewalks on their knees. They were spooked by the power in those prayers.
But when a lovely girl named Maria was brought in the procedure room and put on the table, that was the day everything changed. She was mistakenly given the OK for the procedure by our nurse who didn’t catch that she was 16 weeks pregnant. Our clinic only aborted fetuses up to 12 weeks. When the doctor pulled me aside noting that Maria was really not supposed to be there, he cited the fact that he was trained to abort fetuses of that age, she had paid and was already on the table. So why not take pity on the poor girl and just do it for her?
When the aborted baby was put into a clear jar, I stopped and looked at how fully formed he was. Eyes. Nose. Mouth. Ears. Hands. Fingers. I walked away that day feeling much like I did after any other day, but that night the baby in the jar came back to haunt me. He flooded my dreams and wouldn’t go away. From that day forward, that little boy’s face wouldn’t leave my consciousness.
At about the same time, my husband, with whom I had a very painful relationship, began treating me differently after going to a church in search of answers for our marriage and attending one of their men’s retreats. Suddenly, his increased love and commitment to me looked like an opportunity to give our four kids a peaceful home, which was all I’d ever wanted. So, I quit Planned Parenthood to be able to attend his church and focus on our marriage. When an opportunity to attend a women’s retreat came up I jumped at it—and liked it. But when I confessed my past to my priest, he told me I was absolved and sent me on my way. I didn’t feel forgiven in the least. The boy in the jar was still with me. While I knew in my head that Christ had forgiven me, I needed the wounds in my heart and soul to heal in order to forgive myself. I didn’t know how deeply the trauma had affected me.
It wasn’t long after that we attended a conference where they showed a few clips from an upcoming movie called Unplanned. There, the Abby Johnson character, who is a former abortion worker, is on the outside of the clinic fence warning a woman who has arrived to get an abortion that Planned Parenthood will never let her see her own ultrasound. There was a reason. They couldn’t afford to have her see her baby on the ultrasound screen and elect not to have an abortion.
Suddenly, my blood pressure spiked. That was me. I was one of the workers keeping women from the truth. I was one of the Planned Parenthood faithfuls who encouraged girls to get abortions, making it sound like it was their only choice. I was guilty of the atrocities. I broke down and cried so hard I could barely control myself as if all the babies who I never looked at long enough to care about finally made their way to the surface.
I went home that night and began looking up Abby Johnson videos on YouTube until I found one that made a very personal appeal to all abortion workers—to come with her and find healing. I frantically searched AND THEN THERE WERE NONE online and emailed all of the names on the site five times each. When someone called to invite me to a retreat, she said they would cover the cost—completely. I wondered, could it possibly be true?
At the retreat, the focus wasn’t on how bad we were, but how gracious and forgiving God is. God was in every conversation and at the center of every event. Deeply moved, I was feeling more forgiven every day. But it was my fellow attendees to the retreat, former abortion workers all, who took my hand and loved me, as I loved them, without judgment, that brought me to my knees. Forgiven by God and finding sisters to share the burden, I felt the guilt begin to lift off me, finally.
Lastly, an exercise we were asked to do was to take one of the children we had assisted in aborting and give him or her a name. I knew who mine was immediately. Tears rolled down my cheeks. “Hello, Miguel,” I said to that lovely little boy that I couldn’t forget. “Can you ever forgive me?”
In a letter to him, I wrote: Dear Miguel, I am very sorry for what I have done. I know you are in heaven right now, sitting on God’s lap. I hope to meet you one day. I am so sorry that I never spoke up for you and likely coerced your mother to do what she did. I love you. Please pray for me and your mom. Because of you, I promise to be a voice for the unborn.
Where Are They Now? Nallely Perez
“Let me just say good-bye to my baby,” Nallely said. Throughout our video interview, kids of varying ages pop into the frame to kiss their mom on the cheek and exchange a quick “I love you.” One thing about Nallely becomes clear; she is a woman who puts her family first and has her priorities straight. Speaking with her today and seeing the strong bond she shares with her family, it’s difficult to believe that wasn’t always the case.
“My husband and I were always fighting, drinking,” Nallely said. “We were so unstable, always splitting up and getting back together. We constantly argued in front of the kids. It was not a good environment for them.”
Everything changed when Nallely’s husband attended a men’s retreat at a local church. He committed his life to the Lord and started growing in his faith and serving his wife and children with tenacity.
Nallely’s story is the type that is often used as a pro-choice talking point. She became pregnant at the age of 14 and her mother told her that she was too young to be a mother and offered her an abortion.
“My husband was always speaking up for our babies,” she said. “He would tell me that he would take the baby and be responsible if I didn’t want to be a mom.” While she did not seriously consider abortion with their first child at the age of 14, she did consider it later with her third and fourth pregnancies.
“I was told that my child had Down’s Syndrome,” she said. “My husband said, ‘Then we will have a kid with Down’s Syndrome.’” Once again, her husband advocated for their child, and they welcomed a healthy son.
“With my fourth child, I actually scheduled an abortion at Planned Parenthood,” she said. “I had three babies at home. My husband told me that he would do what he needed to do, even if he had to work three jobs.” They cancelled the appointment.
It is hard to imagine the kind, maternal Nallely as a hardened abortion clinic worker, unfazed by the grizzly work of piecing babies together in the “POC” (Products of Conception) lab and unmoved by distraught young women on exam tables. It is difficult to envision those hands that reach up and lightly touch the faces of her children as they lean in to kiss her goodbye willingly taking part in ending the lives of unborn babies.
At And Then There Were None (ATTWN), we are confident in the power of conversion. In Nallely’s case, it was her husband’s conversion that paved the road that led her out of the abortion industry, into church, and finally into a deep and life-changing faith of her own. The strength of their conversions led to their precious children finally knowing what a loving marriage and a peaceful home looks like, and, most importantly, that through the power of God, people can change.
Nallely connected with ATTWN in 2018 and started on her path toward healing from her involvement in the abortion industry. This was a process that not only changed Nallely’s life, but the ripple effect was felt in her entire family.
“I had fed my daughter all the pro-choice rhetoric,” she said. “When I started my journey with ATTWN, she would ask me why I wanted to take women’s rights away.”
Since its inception, Nallely has worked with LoveLine, a project of ProLove Ministries founded in 2019 to help pregnant women, single moms, and families in crisis. ProLove Ministries was also founded by Abby Johnson in 2019 in view of the overturn of Roe v. Wade, not knowing how quickly on the horizon the overturn would appear less than three years later. Ready to build a post-Roe culture, Abby established LoveLine to connect with expectant mothers, single parents, and families in crisis. LoveLine operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Nallely manages the busy crisis line and is the first point of contact.
What makes LoveLine so unique is its comprehensive case management model with individualized care for each contact’s specific needs while tapping into a vast network of vetted resources. Nallely has been an integral part of building this network while triaging hotline contacts to assess their needs. Nallely’s voice is most often the first one that hotline contacts hear. They find a ready listener willing to spend the necessary time it takes to empathize and present life-affirming options and assurance that LoveLine will be ready to assist. Her fluency in Spanish and English has bridged a wide gap in language barriers for hotline callers.
“As I worked with LoveLine, my daughter was able to understand what abortion really is and how deeply my participation in it hurt me. She saw the impact of women choosing life. She was even able to guide her friend who was considering abortion to choose life,” Nallely said.
The transition from being an abortion worker to working full-time in pro-life ministry has not been an easy one. Nallely went to her first healing retreat with And Then There Were None in 2019.
“At that retreat, everything I had swept under the carpet came out. It was extremely difficult to face what we did,” Nallely said. “I don’t know how I participated in that. Thank God that I’m out.”
Nallely actively pursued her healing through therapy with And Then There Were None’s therapists.
“It is amazing that we can reach out to our counselors any time we need them,” she said. “I wanted to volunteer for a pregnancy center. As soon as she opened the door to the ultrasound room, I had a flashback. I needed help right away and called Amanda. She helped me.”
Serving others has also been a catalyst for healing. “Every time I help a woman in a desperate situation, it helps me heal,” she said.
In addition to working full time as LoveLine’s Intake Manager, Nallely spends time writing postcards by hand with loving invitations to current abortion workers to leave their jobs with ATTWN’s help and mailing them to abortion clinics. She hopes to reach abortion clinic workers who are where she was. She attends pro-life marches, speaks on panels of former abortion clinic workers, speaks at pro-life conferences and churches about what it is like to work at an abortion clinic and how she found healing. Nallely’s story was featured in the documentary She Was Stronger, which highlights three of And Then There Were None’s “Quitters” who have found healing, hope, and new purpose through their conversions and the ministry of And Then There Were None.
The film walks the viewers down the same path Nallely walked into and out of the abortion industry. Through her lens, it is easier to understand how any person could find themselves working in the abortion industry, and how everyone is prey to the deceptive tactics used by the industry if taken off guard.
Nallely’s highest calling and priority is her family. She adores her four children who are now young adults. She grows closer to her husband every day.
“My husband loves what I do. Sometimes the work is heavy, and he always prays for me. He is a praying man, and he is so strong in his faith,” Nallely said. “I tell him, ‘You lead, I will happily follow you.’”
With his solid foundation built on faith in Christ, he hasn’t steered her wrong.