by Bill Beckman
Planned Parenthood claims that prayer vigils have no impact on their business. They will even go so far as to claim that prayer vigils are good for business because they get people to “pledge a protester” for added income.
So why is Planned Parenthood spending money to plant a solid line of pine trees along the sidewalk in Aurora? They already have their building facing the other way. The pine trees will even prevent anyone from seeing the prayer vigils if they look out a back window, assuming they can even reach that high to look through the bulletproof glass.
Why is Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, calling 40 Days for Life a “crisis”? Her “crisis” email states, “Throughout this month, the anti-choice fringe is showering our clinics with protesters during its ‘40 Days for Life’ campaign, which our own Emily X is documenting in painfully vivid pictures and videos.”
The CEO of one large Planned Parenthood operation in New York wrote, “Planned Parenthood is under attack and we need your help to fight back! Right now, the largest anti-choice protest we've seen in a very long time is taking place. An extremist group and its 40 Days for Life Campaign has launched a relentless attack on Planned Parenthood health centers.”
Apparently, Planned Parenthood wants to have their cake and eat it too. They hope to generate donations by citing the crisis they face, but they do not really want to admit that the crisis is actually making any difference for their employees or their customers (alias, victims).
On their “I am Emily X” blog, Planned Parenthood compiles quotes from volunteers and employees. An entry dated October 24th from a volunteer deathscort in Houston states, “But I've never seen a Planned Parenthood client turn around because of a protester. And neither have any of the other volunteers that I work with.”
Does that statement seem consistent with planting a row of trees to block the unlikely line of vision between participants in a prayer vigil and anyone entering the other side of the building?
Or is it more likely that the crisis is real? David Bereit quotes one report that “An employee of the Planned Parenthood facility [we've] been praying in front of has quit her job! She came out of the building and told the pray-ers that she couldn't work there anymore!!”
Many reports have come in from vigil sites around the nation about babies saved from abortion when their mothers were moved by the prayer vigils to choose life. As of October 26th known saves were already over 300. How many more saves occurred without vigil participants learning about these decisions for life?
It looks like Emily X is denying reality. Maybe she will eventually see the futility of her efforts and decide to quit as well. Does Cecile Richards really think there is a crisis? Maybe so! Organize or join a prayer vigil at the Planned Parenthood location nearest you so Cecile Richards continues to face a crisis!
