STORM LAKE, Iowa, November 17, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Last Monday during a 40 Days for Life webcast, former Planned Parenthood manager Sue Thayer revealed how she ended up being fired by her former employer over a dispute about abortion, and then lead the recent 40 Days for Life campaign outside the very centre that she once managed for many years.
“I know it’s hard to believe,” Sue told the thousands of pro-lifers who tuned in to the webcast, adding that she and her group prayed on the sidewalk directly in front of what used to be called her place of work for 12 hours a day for the entire 40 days.
Sue recounted how she landed a job at the clinic in 1991 as a Family Planning Assistant. This clinic offered only family planning services and did not perform abortions. Within a month of starting work, Sue was delighted when a managerial position opened up, giving her the opportunity to advance in her career.
Join a Facebook page to end abortion here.
During the interview process for the position, Sue was asked about her views on abortion. She responded that she “really believed that abortion was murder.” Despite her superior’s surprise and admonishment that the “fetus” was “not viable” and therefore abortion was “really not ending a life,” Sue secured the position in April that same year. Before taking command in the leather chair, she first had to go through the “training” process required of Planned Parenthood managers.
“Every employee, who was in management in the health services part of Planned Parenthood, was required to observe a full day of abortions,” said Sue. To this day, she finds it difficult to put into words what she witnessed during her day of training.
“The baby is extracted and put into a small little clear dish, and they look at that under a light to try to determine if they have all of the body parts, because—of course—during the abortion the baby is ripped apart and so there are little tiny arms and little legs.”
What convinced Sue to take the managing position was not a belief in abortion as a right, but a desire to prevent the need for abortions through effective contraceptives. She ended up working for Planned Parenthood for 17 years.
In 2008 Planned Parenthood began to roll out Telemed abortions, requiring Sue’s up-till-now abortion free clinic to dispense abortion drugs to pregnant mothers through a videoconference system with a remote doctor. Sue’s clinic was required to perform a vaginal ultrasound on a pregnant mother, send it electronically to a doctor at a central location who, upon examining the ultrasound to determine age of the baby (63 days old or less), would “push a button” which would remotely open a drawer beside the mother, allowing her to take the drug to kill her baby.
Sue remembers being “stunned” by the entire telemed procedure and the financial reason given to her by those at head office attempting to justify it. She heard that telemed abortions have “very little overhead” when compared to a surgical abortions, which require specialized equipment, staff, and a physician.
Now Sue found herself placed in a difficult position. She had always told her local community that Planned Parenthood was not about abortions but about family planning to prevent abortion. The introduction of telemed abortions in her clinic went against everything she had “believed” about Planned Parenthood and everything she had “said” for many years to the community.
The logic of contraception and its link to abortion finally caught up with her.
When she brought these concerns to her seniors in December 2008, she discovered that her manager’s position had been “terminated” since, as she was told, the organization was “downsizing.” But when Sue discovered Planned Parenthood advertising her position a few weeks later, the real reason she had been fired dawned on her – she had been terminated for challenging Planned Parenthood’s “dirty little secret” of abortion for profit.
Sue was not content to sit back and watch Planned Parenthood grow rich from its destruction of innocent life. She made friends at a bible school and together they made plans to take a stand and defend the life of the unborn child. As a former manager of a Planned Parenthood clinic, Sue knew exactly what would be the most effective way to get out the message.
She immediately began to organize a 40 Days for Life campaign.
“We have had a tremendous response. Many, many churches, many different faiths, have come together and it has been a huge blessing.”
For the former clinic manager, her biggest blessing during the campaign was the “sheer amount of time that I spend in prayer. It just brought me so much closer to the Lord.”
Now that the campaign has ended, Sue and her pro-life group have plans to start a pregnancy centre and continue their efforts to end abortion. She encourages pro-life fence sitters to “take a risk. Get out of the boat and get going.”
Join a Facebook page to end abortion here.