In a court ruling last December, The Church at Planned Parenthood was ordered to pay $110,000 in damages and $850,000 in legal fees after Planned Parenthood sued the church.
According to the website for The Church, it holds a monthly worship service “at the gates of Hell,” meaning outside abortion clinics. The church is actually a ministry of Covenant Church.
Ken Peters, who pastors The Church at Planned Parenthood, tells AFN the worship service was held after the abortion clinic was closed, when no women were entering, in order to comply with the state law.
“We ended up getting sued for obstructing,” he says of the lawsuit. “There is no way we obstructed.”
The church lawsuit dates back to June 2020, when Planned Parenthood alleged the worship service was violating a noise ordinance and violating a state law that prohibits disrupting a “healthcare facility,” meaning an abortion clinic.
In the fall of 2020, a judge ordered The Church to move its services across the street as part of a preliminary injunction. A permanent injunction a year later found The Church was interfering with public access to the clinic.
It appears most of that court-required payment went to Legal Voice, a left-wing law firm, that called the settlement a “win for abortion providers.” The law firm, headquartered in Seattle, represents abortion supporters and homosexual activists.
In the lawsuit, Legal Voice claimed women were still in the clinic when the worship service began and moved to a separate room so they couldn't hear the protest. Other women cancelled their appointments, the lawsuit alleges, because a “gauntlet of armed protestors” were blocking the entrance.
“We never harassed women. Did not do any of the stuff they accused us of doing,” the pastor maintains. “Of course, the judge would not even hear our side. He 100% believed their lies."
Insurance is expected to cover the $850,000 in legal fees.
"You can push us across the street and one hour later. We do not care,” Peters tells AFN. “We are still going to be there standing up for righteousness in the name of Jesus."
