Recently, an anonymous caller dialed up Dr. Michael Brown’s nationally-syndicated conservative radio show “The Line of Fire” and asked a surprising question: Am I too far gone to go back?

That’s startling stuff when it comes from the mouth of a Planned Parenthood employee, one full of regret over taking a job involving the murder of babies.

No, her work wasn’t handling those baby body parts or cajoling nervous clients. Instead, she was in what she called an “administrative” position. Even so, anybody on the hearing end of this conversation could tell the caller felt the full weight of what was happening in that Planned Parenthood facility — just like she was the one holding the knife.

And if you’ve ever wondered what real remorse sounds like, let me give you a piece of advice: Go online and hear her grief-stricken voice talking about what she saw in the POC room (that’s the “Product of Conception” Room, in case you didn’t know).

“It’s really bad. It is. It’s a baby. There’s legs, there’s arms and there’s eyes. It’s a baby,” the caller told Brown, a pro-life Christian apologist. “They refer to it as either tissue or fetus, but I saw it for the first time. It’s a baby. It’s not tissue,” she said.

Brown listened as she continued to give the details of her situation — a single mom in need of a good paycheck, four months on the job, an embarrassment that won’t go away and keeps her from attending church. “I feel a lot of guilt,” she admitted.

But the radio host didn’t cut her any slack. He pegged her embarrassment and uneasiness for what they were —  conviction and conscience. Then she forged ahead with the hard stuff, choking on some of the words.

“I know we have to answer to God for everything that we do, but will I be judged the same way as people who actually have abortions and things like that? How do you think God sees that? Do you think I am too far gone to go back?”

Now, to be honest, I had never heard of Michael Brown before I read about this story. I can’t vouch for his leanings or his leftings, but I know this: He nailed the answer to this particular caller’s question.

He spoke truth — quit the job. If you don’t, you are complicit in the murder of children.

He spoke grace — God is merciful and ready to forgive. Trust Him for your next step.

He spoke love — we’ll help you if quitting this job means you’ll face financial crisis.

Of course, the woman who called in and became part of this dialogue isn’t the first abortion clinic worker to question her vocation. In 2009 Abby Johnson made headlines with her own dramatic exit from Planned Parenthood, where she had worked for eight years. She was even named “2008 Employee of the Year” at the Bryan, Texas, clinic she directed.

“Empowerment for me as a woman began the day that I handed in my resignation,” Johnson writes on her website. She says she is now pro-love. “Every life, from the child in the womb, to the elderly — and in between, including the abortion clinic worker’s life — have incredible value and worth.”

Johnson went on to establish the nonprofit organization And Then There Were None. It’s goal? To end abortion from the inside out. That’s right. An organization that helps heart-changed abortion clinic workers do whatever it takes to leave the industry.

And it’s stories like Johnson’s that provide the best living-proof response to the “being too far gone” concerns expressed on that wrenching radio broadcast. But maybe the question isn’t are we ever too far gone to go back. Maybe the better question is this: Are we ever too far gone to go forward? 

(And maybe it’s my turn to nail an answer now.)

No, we are not.  And that’s true for abortion providers, abortion partakers, and even those of us who would rather stick our heads in the sand and act like the evil of abortion isn’t going on around us.

No, praise God, we are not. 

Kim Henderson is a freelance writer. Contact her at kimhenderson319@gmail.com.