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HealthPartners’ Clinic
Campaign
The 40 Days for Life Twin Cities campaign has focused on HealthPartners'
Regions Hospital. The truth of HealthPartners' and abortion now
needs to be shared in front its clinics in the Metro area.
Why? Most HealthPartners' members do not get their health care
at Regions Hospital.
They are unaware that HealthPartners' Regions Hospital has a dedicated
abortion facility within Regions Hospital, which HealthPartners
owns and operates, and their medical premiums are supporting an
HMO that kills children up to 20 weeks!
Bringing this truth to neighborhood clinics has helped to convince
more HealthPartners' members to write Mary Brainerd, HealthPartners'
CEO, the board of directors and demand that HealthPartners get
out of the abortion business completely. By proclaiming the truth
we can recruit more prayer warriors to pray for the end of abortion
at Regions Hospital. By proclaiming the truth we can encourage
pro-life employees of HealthPartners to stand up for life in their
workplace and let them know they are not alone!
This effort has been and will continue to be a prayerful and peaceful
presentation of the truth at neighborhood HealthPartners' clinics.
You will not have to sidewalk counsel. You only have to stand on
a public sidewalk or right of way and pray, hold a sign, and give
out informational literature.
Pro-Life Action Ministries will not participate in 40 Days for
Life for Winter 2010.
The staff at Pro-Life Action Ministries is reviewing the strategy
to bring an end to the abortuary at Regions Hospital and for HealthPartners
to get outof the abortion business completely. Continue to monitor
this site for updates on the new initiatives at Regions. Please
continue to come out to the hospital to pray and hold signs. As
of December 2009 we have no scheduled activity for Regions. Contact
us if you plan to participate in future events. When you
plan to go out on your own, call us about parking, how to get signs/brochures
and where to stand.
Please go to our newsletter and website for activities coming
up in January (January 22) and Good Friday (April 2)
Thanks to your prayers, participation and working together
with other caring believers, we are "Stopping Abortion One
Life at a Time!"
In Him,
Brian Walker, Program
Director
Pro-Life Action Ministries
651-771-1500
brian.walker@plam.org
Progress Report and Action Items
HealthPartners Progress Report, December 2009
The following report appeared in the Pro-Life
Action Ministries December
2009 newsletter.
Fall 2009 "40 Days for Life Twin Cities" Comes to
an End
by Brian Walker,
Program Director
40 Days for Life Twin Cities ended on Sunday, November 1. This
concluded 40 Days for Life activities until fall 2010. As the year
ends, this is a good time to look back and review how God’s
blessings were evident throughout this past year’s campaigns.
Thanks to all participants; whether you put in 52 hours (as one
brother shared with me) or just 15 minutes in prayer and vigil
outside HealthPartners Regions Hospital, you played your part.
Especially in light of the murders of George Tiller and James Pouillon,
a spirit of fear could have taken over, but your public witness
proclaiming the sanctity of life persisted. God was pleased and
many were blessed.
One of the highlights was that many volunteers came out for the
first time to HealthPartners’ Regions Hospital to share their
burden for the unborn and care for their mothers and fathers. Many
participants were a little uncomfortable and some were totally
at peace, but they came. This year there was also increased participation
from the Protestant wing of the church. This was an answer to prayer.
Pro-Life Action Ministries is an interdenominational ministry and
it was a blessing to see the full body of Christ in peaceful vigil.
It was a pleasure to see some of the "regulars" (you
know who you are), who would come out once or twice a week without
calling and were at peace just being there by themselves praying.
This fall I met more families coming out by themselves, carriages
and all. These were not only "soccer moms,” but prayer
warriors taking time out of their busy schedules to stand for life.
It really was encouraging for the staff here to know that prayer
was going forth whether we were there or not.
Some other good news: we are receiving increasing reports that
the call for the closing of the abortion mill at HealthPartners’ Regions
Hospital is growing. There are many pro-life employees at Regions
and they have commented about your peaceful presence and prayer
witness. It encourages them to wage the unseen fight within the
hospital walls and know they are not alone.
The momentum caused by 40 Days helped to revive SaveHealthPartners.com.
SaveHealthPartners was started some years ago to end abortion at
HealthPartners' Regions Hospital and to alert the public that
an HMO owned an abortion mill in a hospital! SaveHealthPartners
participants prayed at 15 of the satellite HealthPartners clinics
around the Twin Cities. Participation ranged from one person (yours
truly!) to more than 60 in Coon Rapids and Bloomington. Regardless
of the numbers, the witness was the same: proclaiming that abortion
must end and informing the public about HealthPartners' role.
One of my personal one-on-one moments came on my way to a vigil
at HealthPartners’ clinic on Phalen Boulevard near our office
on the East Side of St. Paul. As I was walking down the hill toward
the clinic a woman in a pickup truck shouted to me, “Abortion
is none of your business; I'm pro-choice!" I love comments
like that. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, I usually have a reply, "Why?" I
walked over to her truck as she continued to question why I had
my signs. I continued to talk and gently ask her, "Why?"
She settled down and we had a conversation in the middle of the
street! Her last comment was, “You know abstinence doesn't
work!" I laughed and replied, "Did you hear what you
just said?" (Of course we all know abstinence always works.)
She laughed too after realizing what she’d said and it was
a Divine moment instead of an argument. Instead, she gladly took
some pro-life literature, I wished her a good day and she went
on her way.
I'm sure you have similar stories. Email me at Pro-Life Action
Ministries; I'd love to share them with staff members. The next
40 Days for Life will take place in the fall of 2010. This is a
good time to continue the momentum by organizing for next year;
let's have a goal to have all 40 days be Adopt-A-Days! When I get
calls from participants asking whether they can come down, I always
say, "Sure, there are plenty of hours and plenty of sidewalk!" Prayerfully,
there will not be the need for 40 Days for Life at Regions again.
We’ll plan like there will be, but if abortion mill closes
at Regions, we'll celebrate, praise God and direct our attention
elsewhere.
Meanwhile, you are free to come out to Regions and continue to
pray or walk, holding a sign and handing out literature. This has
been a great campaign. The good news is that your prayers, fasting
and presence will have a lasting effect on people we may never
meet. Perhaps nine months from now we'll hear from a mother saying
she came to the hospital to abort her child, but by the witness
of 40 Days for Life she decided not to abort. We recently received
an update on the woman who changed her mind at Regions during our
Fall 2008 40 Days for Life. Her daughter, born in June, is a real
blessing to the family, she says. The woman’s husband (who
had wanted the abortion) is especially attached to this child now.
This is what 40 Days and the ongoing ministry of sidewalk counseling
mean: "Stopping Abortion—One Life at a Time."
We have documented 144 babies saved in 2009 so
far (as of 12/17/2009). Your prayers and help to our ministry makes
this possible. Thank you!
Ongoing Weekly Activities
Thursdays, 12:00 noon
- 1:00 p.m.—Witness outside St. Mary’s Hospital
to protest its use of HealthPartners’ services. 2414 South
7th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55454 (Near Riverside Avenue and I-94).
Information Distributions and Rallies
Things
are continuing to heat up with HealthPartners.
Since beginning our efforts in November 2006, there have been information
distributions
at 13 HealthPartners
clinics around the Twin Cities. Thousands of brochures exposing
HealthPartners have been distributed to patients and employees
at these clinics. Thousands of others have seen the large placards
as they have driven past these clinics during these distributions.
The effectiveness of this type of activity is amazing.
Petition Drive
Petitions are
available through our office or as a PDF
file which can be sent via email.
A great way to get a large number of petitions signed is to have a petition
signing Sunday at your church.
We
can provide
all the
petitions
necessary
and brochures explaining HealthPartners involvement in abortion. Petitions
have been presented to HealthPartners at their annual
meeting.
We will continue to cllect signatures and testimonies and will present
these to HelthPartners on future occasions. Please spread the word about
our petition!
Boycott HealthPartners
We have heard
from many who have switched their health coverage away from HealthPartners.
If you are in a position to make a change, we strongly encourage you
to do so. But please make sure you clearly communicate to HealthPartners
the
reason
for leaving and that you would be willing to return should they close
the abortuary at Regions Hospital. If you cannot make a change, please
communicate
to HealthPartners your desire to leave and their need to close the abortuary
at Regions.
Call, Write, Email
Please continue
to call, write and email message HealthPartners board members and
its CEO, Mary Brainerd The HealthPartners website provides a list
of board
members with short individualized biographies at http://www.healthpartners.com/portal/26.html.
A general email address is also given as directors@healthpartners.com. Executive
officers for HealthPartners with short individualized biographies
and responsibilities are also on a web page at http://www.healthpartners.com/portal/27.html.
And contact information for HealthPartners Member Services is listed
as https://www.healthpartners.com/member/contact/controller.
Let Us Know What You Are Doing
Please send us feedback on
contact made with HealthPartners.
Make a Donation
Your financial help for this
ministry is always and gratefully appreciated. Please consider
helping with the costs of this
campaign as well as our
regular ongoing expenses. Secure online donations can be
made at https://www.merchantamerica.com/prolifeaction/echopay/.
Get
Really Involved
For more direct involvement with our strategies, or simply for
more information, contact savehealthpartners@plam.org
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