Wisconsin Right to Life’s New BFF: Sue Thayer

Sue Thayer came to town and will not soon be forgotten. Sue served as manager of a Planned Parenthood (PP) family planning clinic in Storm Lake, Iowa for 18 years. She came to Wisconsin to testify in favor of SB 306, the Coercive and Web Cam Abortion Prevention Act — a bill that would prohibit web cam abortions in Wisconsin.

Sue Thayer’s journey is fascinating. She loved her job at Planned Parenthood, believing she was helping to prevent abortions. Around 2007, Planned Parenthood of Iowa dreamed up the web cam abortion scheme and mandated that all of its family planning clinics participate. Sue was aghast. She, a non-medical person, would be trained to do vaginal ultrasounds and would have the web cam apparatus in her clinic. This would force her to directly participate in abortion. Sue spoke up forcefully against this scheme and was fired (they were downsizing, she was told).

Sue related all of this as part of her testimony at yesterday’s public hearing on SB 306. Senator Jon Erpenbach, a committee member, asked Sue why she stayed so long at Planned Parenthood. Her response was immediate — because Planned Parenthood changed. PP no longer was following its mission of prevention and was now setting abortion quotas to fatten up the bottom line. Web cam abortions were just as expensive as surgical, yet much of the overhead was eliminated, given Planned Parenthood more profit.

Sue’s personal life is just as fascinating as her professional one. Two days ago, she adopted a 16-month-old Native American girl. Little Zoe joins Sue’s two natural children, two adopted children and one foster child to make a family of seven. Sue is a single parent. She has fostered over 100 children over the years and is quite a remarkable woman with a huge heart and love for children.

What a privilege it was to meet this woman and learn of her journey! She is in a good place now, out of the clutches of Planned Parenthood, eyes opened wide to the abortion-minded direction of her former employer. Sue Thayer is one of the signers of a letter to Congress offering to give personal testimony to a committee conducting an investigation of Planned Parenthood. We welcome her with open arms to our movement and our work. She is our new and beloved BFF.

Barbara Lyons