Project Weak Link Closes Planned Parenthood Fort Wayne Office

Last week, Planned Parenthood of Fort Wayne, IN closed their doors permanently. In a press conference, CEO Christie Gillespie cited efforts by Created Equal—misconstrued as “harassment and intimidation”—as influential in their inability to remain open.

In January of 2017, Created Equal interns and Fort Wayne residents began a campaign to expose this enabling of abortion by the Fort Wayne Planned Parenthood office.

The Journal Gazette headline story about #ProjectWeakLink and Planned Parenthood

Now, in the press conference to explain this month’s permanent facility closure, PP of Indiana and Kentucky (PPINK) CEO Gillespie has explained the difficulty they faced after the nurse quit.

Referring to the public awareness efforts led by our interns, Gillespie comments, “[W]hen it’s known that there’s harassment and intimidation . . . it makes recruiting, particularly providers, very challenging.”

Further, Gillespie comments previously they’d seen approximately 3,000 patients per year before stating, “When the intensity toward a particular provider started, and we had difficulty recruiting, that started dropping down to about 1,600 or 1,800 patients.”

While Gillespie consistently refers to Created Equal’s work as “harassment and intimidation,” when asked by journalists about the response from law enforcement to our public awareness campaign, she states, “The law regarding harassment and intimidation—it can be done very subtly, and, at times, law enforcement has their hands tied.”

In other words, law enforcement concluded the distribution of flyers did not constitute harassment or intimidation. The courts have concluded similarly, such as when Stericycle lost their lawsuit against Created Equal for alleged “intimidating and harassing conduct” causing distress. Judge Marcouiller ruled that “references to enabling ‘killing’ and even suggesting that an individual is ‘a killer’ are constitutionally protected expressions of opinion when these words are used in the context of the abortion debate,” granting Created Equal’s motion to dismiss the case.

Planned Parenthood of Fort Wayne notice of closure

Bringing public pressure on individuals and organizations for immoral practices is lawful and appropriate. If our neighbors insist on participating in the grisly work of killing children, their actions should be brought before the court of public opinion wherein common citizens have the ability to appeal to them to stop.

Indeed, if abortion were an innocuous medical procedure, abortionists and their enablers would thank us for the publicity our public awareness campaigns provide. But because abortion creates bloody victims, they want their actions to remain hidden.