The Christian pro-life group The Church at Planned Parenthood (TCAPP) was forced to pay almost $1 million dollars in fines for “disturbing the peace” outside a Planned Parenthood in Washington state.
The group’s focus is praying, preaching, and singing hymns outside the abortion clinic. However, Judge Tim Fennessy of Spokane County Superior Court saw this peaceful protest as “willfully or recklessly” disrupting the business of the abortion facility and “unreasonably disturbing the peace within the facility”. Thus he ordered the group to pay $850,000 in legal fees. This preposterous amount is on top of $110,000 the group was previously ordered to pay to Planned Parenthood. TCAPP had been under strict orders after a September 2020 court decision to keep at least 35 feet away from the abortion facility and refrain from making any noise between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
TCAPP co-founder Pastor Ken Peters pushed back in comments to local media, saying the group was simply “singing, praying, and preaching … after hours” according to KREM2 News, a Spokane-based CBS affiliate.