On Tuesday, February 16th, 2021, a church met on a hill across from Planned Parenthood in Knoxville, Tennessee. The name of this particular church, however, is a very uncommon one. It is called “The Church At Planned Parenthood” and according to their website they are not a protest, but a “worship service at the gates of hell.” 

The Church At Planned Parenthood, also known as TCAPP, defines themselves as a gathering of Christians who are united 1) for the worship of God, (2) the corporate prayer for repentance for this nation, (3) repentance for the apathetic church, and (4) repentance for our blood guiltiness in this abortion holocaust. 

TCAPP holds church services not just outside of Planned Parenthood in Knoxville, but outside of Planned Parenthood facilities across the United States. The visionary behind the movement is a pastor by the name of Ken Peters who served as pastor of Covenant Church in Spokane, Washington. 

The idea came to Pastor Ken Peters during a church service where Reverend Rusty Thomas, National Director for Operation Save America, was preaching on the need for the Church of Jesus Christ to get involved in the fight against abortion by taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the abortion clinics. 

In an interview with CBN Pastor Peters shared, “I felt the Lord say to me, right in the middle of a church service, I want your next church campus to be the Planned Parenthood Campus.” And so the first TCAPP was planted at Planned Parenthood’s Spokane, Washington location on October 24th, 2018. 

The Church At Planned Parenthood, which meets monthly in different cities, has drawn hundreds of Christians together outside of Planned Parenthood facilities to worship God through song, prayer, giving, and the preaching and receiving of the Word of God. Many well-known Christian speakers have shared at the gatherings including Pastor Greg Locke, pro-life advocate Ryan Bomberger, abortion activist Bevelyn Beatty, and Christian musical artist Steve Camp. 

While many have praised the movement no one appears to be less thrilled about the movement than Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho who filed a lawsuit in June of 2020 against The Church at Planned Parenthood. The abortion giant alleges that the noisy gatherings by Pastor Ken Peters and others have interfered with the services which they provide and have intimidated their patients and staff. 

In response to the lawsuit, Pastor Ken Peters shared with Fox News, “You have a billion-dollar industry suing local church pastors that aren’t wealthy at all, for singing and peaceably assembly.” Peters continued, “We’ve been running for two years. We’ve never been cited. We don’t cause destruction. We don’t loot. We don’t riot. We literally go to Planned Parenthood and we hold church once a month . . . We do this after hours. We are not causing any harm.” Pastor Ken Peters and The Church at Planned Parenthood are being defended by the Pacific Justice Institute and are intending to fight the battle to the very end. An opportunity for people to contribute to help with TCCAPs legal defense can be found through the church website.

The lawsuit has not stopped TCAPP or the launching of other TCAPPs across the United States. At their third event outside of Planned Parenthood’s Knoxville facility, Pastor Ken Peters shared with WATE News, “We like to do it right here as close as we can to the abortion facility because it makes it real.” Peters continued, “It’s our way of shining a light for the glory of God, traffic comes by, they see us worshiping, it also shines a light on what we think is an evil industry.” 

In an official statement to WATE News, Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood‘s Community Engagement Director Tory Mills shared, “I’ve been with Planned Parenthood in Knoxville for 10 years. And this is new. We’re seeing more folks who are trying to engage with patients, trying to engage with us.” Director Mills continued, “Ken Peters, who started The Church At Planned Parenthood, is not from TN. He moved here last year and since then, we’ve seen an uptick in the amount of protest activity we have.”

According to an on-site correspondent, it is estimated that over 150 people attended the most recent worship gathering of TCAPP which met in 27 degree weather outside of Planned Parenthood on Tuesday night. 

Victoria Blaze is a senior journalism major at a university in Florida and enjoys writing, cooking, scuba-diving, and martial arts. When she is not working on her next writing project or taking part in one of her many hobbies, she enjoys attending a local church, playing fetch with her pit-bull Scruffy, and taking care of injured birds and squirrels.