Abortion protesters planning 40-day vigil at Red Oak site
MOLLY SKYLES
Assistant Editor
RED OAK — An international anti-abortion campaign will be coming to Red Oak for 40 days of peaceful prayer and fasting Sept. 26 as part of their biannual event.
The 40 Days for Life campaign has mobilized more than 525,000 individuals in 16 different counties since 2007. Their goal is to end abortion through prayer and fasting, peaceful vigil and community outreach. The campaign has saved more than 4,300 lives from abortion, led to the conversion of 52 abortion workers and seen 13 abortion facilities close, according to its website.
Rod Goodemote of Stanton, the team leader for the local campaign, decided to get involved with the mission after reading a letter to the editor from Sue Thayer in the Red Oak Express during June.
Thayer was a former Planned Parenthood Center Manager in Storm Lake, Iowa. When she spoke out against telemed or webcam abortions during spring 2011, she was fired.
During a telemed abortion, a patient is in a room communicating with a doctor via webcam. According to the Planned Parenthood website, the patient is given two pills, one that ends the pregnancy by breaking down the lining of the uterus and the second, taken three days later, that causes the uterus to empty, ejecting the fetus. A telemed abortion can be conducted if the pregnancy is less than nine weeks along.
In her letter, Thayer said because of the simplicity of this method — no surgical costs or travel expenses for surgical staff — telemed abortions make a lot of money for clinics. The pills cost about $300-$800. Her main problem, though, was that most women end up aborting at home and are unaware they will be seeing an actual baby with developed features.
Telemed abortions began in Iowa as a test program. They have since begun in various other states, according to Goodemote although a complete list was not available. Upon reading Thayer’s story and researching telemed abortions, Goodemote applied to have a campaign locally.
He said he was surprised not many people read Thayer’s letter or knew of telemed abortions, and wanted to increase community awareness.
The event, which Goodemote said is not a protest, will begin Sept. 26 and go until Nov. 4. There will be two people standing outside the Red Oak Planned Parenthood at all times for 12 hours each day. They are allowed to have two signs. There will be no yelling or chanting like at other events, according to Goodemote.
“We are there to pray for an end to abortion; it is the right thing to do,” Goodemote said.
“A young girl who goes to Planned Parenthood for a telemed abortion will likely have no contact with a physician and may not even be informed of what’s going to happen. She then will have the baby at home with no preparations. That is just wrong.”
While the purpose of the 40 Days for Life Campaign is to end all abortions, Goodemote said for him and specifically in Iowa, the focus is on telemed abortions. For more information or to get involved with the campaign, sign up online at 40daysforlife.com/redoak.
The Heartland Planned Parenthood declined to comment on the upcoming 40 Days for Life Campaign or on information regarding telemed abortions.