By Fr. Frank A. Pavone National Director, Priests for Life
Joy Davis thought power was managing six abortion mills
Joy Davis worked as a safety coordinator in a Birmingham hospital to support
herself and her two boys after her brief marriage ended. When a cousin told
her how she could increase her salary by working in an abortion mill, Joy
readily accepted, and found that hard work and a desire to learn moved her
rapidly up the ranks of responsibility and salary.
Joy advanced from receptionist to regional director of six abortion mills
during her 12 years in the abortion industry.
That power became hollow as she saw the exploitation of the women Joy's
responsibilities while working in abortion ranged from entertaining
politicians to doing abortions.
Mill owners liked attractive employees to attend their political
get-togethers. The owners would often send these employees to attend lunches
with senators, representatives, and political candidates.
"The parties would go on through the weekends every time they came, and it
was up to the employees to entertain," Joy said; but she added, "All
employees were given very nice gifts for their cooperation."
When Joy left her first mill to work with an abortionist who promised to
increase profits for both of them through late-term abortions, she found her
social responsibilities decreasing as her abortion experience grew. Since
the abortionist had six mills to operate, he trained Joy to be a physician
in his absence. Routinely, she reports, the instruments used on the women
were not sterilized.
The medical and managerial responsibilities made her feel powerful. Joy was
actually beginning to feel like a doctor until a patient she was with died
due to the doctor's negligence. "I realized I wasn't a doctor. I tried to
help her but I couldn't." The abortionist went so far as to cancel the
ambulance after Joy had made the call.
Real power came when Joy found freedom from her life of nightmares and pain
Joy knew she needed to get out, but her initial feelings were "Abortion is
okay if it is done well."
She opened her own mill and made sure everything was done "safely and
properly." Her conscience allowed her to stay in business for eight weeks.
After she failed to find peace in her own mill, Joy decided to seek refuge
with her sister in Alaska. She secured a job, but the day she was to leave,
something made her call a couple who had counseled women outside her mill.
She begged them to help her, and they told her Jesus Christ was the One who
could. Joy had done many things wrong in her years in the abortion industry,
but Jesus forgave them all, and Joy found the power she sought. "When I was
invited into the Catholic Church I felt the strong presence of God and knew
that's where I belonged," Joy said. On April 2, 1994, Joy was baptized into
the Catholic Church.
The nightmares that had plagued her for so long have stopped, and Joy is now
working to stop the exploitation of women and slaying of children. She now
manages a mobile crisis pregnancy center. She speaks to groups, churches and
individual women about the truth of what happens behind the doors of
abortion mills. She has found the joy of giving life.
A message from Priests for Life
Joy's name was never so appropriate for her as it is today. She experiences
now a new kind of joy, which comes from renouncing evil, receiving
forgiveness, discovering truth and living the new life of Christ.
Joy's road to joy has taken her through a very dark valley, filled with
evil, deception, pain and death. Her walk through the dark valley was long.
"But you are at my side with your rod and your staff that give me courage"
(Psalm 23:4). God led her with the rod of truth, the staff of repentance,
leading her to the waters of baptism. "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow . . . Give me back the joy of your salvation" (Psalm 51: 9, 14).
The whole Church rejoices to welcome Joy as a Catholic. I rejoice that I
have gotten to know her personally and worked with her to defend life. The
Church always seeks the conversion of sinners, and longs to extend Christ's
mercy to all who are caught in the snare of abortion. May our whole society
repent of this evil and, like Joy, find the truth and life of Christ. Joy
can be reached through Priests for Life.
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