Planned Parenthood wants to permanently stop a pro-life church from gathering outside its abortion facility in Spokane, Washington.
The Spokesman-Review reports Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho recently filed a lawsuit against The Church at Planned Parenthood, a pro-life ministry that holds regular worship services on the public sidewalk outside the abortion facility.
The abortion chain claims the pro-life Christians are bullying patients and staff and interfering with its work. However, city police say they have not had problems with the church, the report states. Pro-life sidewalk counselors, pro-life protests and other outreaches are overwhelmingly peaceful.
“The most hated race in America is Christians right now. It really is,” Pastor Ken Peters said Tuesday during one of their services.
The lawsuit targets the church and its leaders, including state Rep. Matt Shea, Covenant Church and Covenant Christian School, Pastors Peters, Gabe Blomgren and Seth Haberman, and Clay Roy.
“These are not protesters – they are bullies who are trying to take away care from young women, men, the LGBTQ community and Black, Indigenous, people of color in Spokane,” said Karl Eastlund, who runs the Washington abortion branch, in a statement. “Enough is enough.”
The church leaders also say they are not protesters. Their purpose is to worship God and pray for repentance “of our blood guiltiness in this abortion holocaust.” Sometimes hundreds of people gather to worship with The Church at Planned Parenthood in Spokane, according to the local news.
The lawsuit accuses the Christian ministry of upsetting patients, including one who allegedly began crying when she heard the megaphone and music outside.
“The staff ultimately had to move this patient, like many others, to another room. Moving a patient requires her to get dressed and undressed again. It also requires the patient to wait until there is another room available where the noise level is lower,” the lawsuit claims.
Planned Parenthood asked the courts to permanently ban the church from gathering on the public sidewalks outside its Spokane facility and to award it damages for the alleged disturbances, according to the report.
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The pro-abortion group Legal Voice also slammed the pro-life Christians as a “loud mob of angry protesters” who sometimes carry guns and “terrorize” patients.
But Peters said the claims about disrupting patients do not make sense because their church services start when Planned Parenthood closes.
“They’re not even open,” he said. “We start at 6 o’clock; they close at 6.”
The abortion chain told the newspaper that it does close its doors at 6 p.m., but patients sometimes are there until 7 p.m.
Planned Parenthood is not happy with local police either.
Spokane police have been at every church service since September, and they have not had any problems with the church-goers, police Chief Craig Meidl told the newspaper.
“I have been assured by everyone who is there that they have been following the law,” Meidl said.
But the abortion chain does not think police are doing their jobs. The lawsuit claims, “Although there is a strong police presence at [the church services], the police tend to stay on the side of the street with [the church-goers] and make conversation and smile and laugh with its participants.”
Meanwhile, the church leaders plan to expand their ministry to other states.
According to the report:
Peters, who recently announced he’s leaving Spokane to bring TCAPP demonstrations to Planned Parenthood locations across the country, said Tuesday lawyers from the American Center for Law and Justice have agreed to defend TCAPP’s leaders from the lawsuit. …
“We’re here to worship, pray, preach together. That’s all we do. We’re here to fight with spiritual weapons,” Peters told the crowd Tuesday. “They can try to keep us quiet with the sound ordinance, but they can’t stop us. So if we got to sing quiet, we’ll sing quiet. But we’re not going to stop singing. We’re not going to stop praising. We’re not going to stop.”
Since the church formed in 2018, abortion activists have been trying to restrict its life-saving work. In March, the Spokane City Council voted to expand a noise ordinance outside abortion facilities and health care facilities in the city. Pro-life leaders believe the vote directly targeted pro-life sidewalk counselors and the Church at Planned Parenthood.
Last year, in an interview with Prayer Link, a CBN talk show, Peters said he staunchly believes that the pro-life movement will succeed in the battle to protect the defenseless.
“The Bible says that hell will not prevail against the church, but I think if the church does not engage, then hell has free reign. So, what we’re doing is taking church right to the gates of hell knowing that we will win,” he said.
