Have you ever wondered, “Why, oh, why would someone ever work at an abortion center?”

Linda Couri, a former Planned Parenthood counselor, answers, “Good intentions.”

But, Couri says, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”

I listened to Couri’s story a few days ago through LifeNews.com, and her honesty and candor impressed me. Her story is about an hour long, but it’s well worth watching here.

She talked about something I’ve long suspected about many of the people who work at abortion centers like Planned Parenthood. They have good intentions. They truly want to help women. But their compassion is misplaced (all for the woman, none for the baby).

Couri said she took a pay cut to work at Planned Parenthood, because she truly wanted to help women in difficult circumstances. When she met with women who were unexpectedly pregnant, afraid and unprepared for motherhood, she counseled them to abort. She thought it was the best option.

Only after a series of events did Couri realize the terrible mistake in her reasoning and its consequences. One day, a teenager asked if she was killing her child. Couri struggled to answer, but the question haunted her. Later, she began reading journal entries written by women as they were recovering from their abortions. Couri was shocked to find how distraught many of the women were.

And she wondered if abortion really helps women. She wondered how she could continue to justify killing preborn babies. When she realized the truth, she quit her job. Now she is a pro-life speaker.

I think it’s important that we really listen to pro-lifers like Couri because she helps us to understand why many abortion center workers and abortion advocates do what they do. If we work to listen and understand them, we can help encourage them to extend their compassion to both mother and child.