Pro-life prayer service Oct. 13

As part of the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ “40 Days for Life” campaign, Archbishop Gregory Aymond will preside at a prayer service sponsored by the Respect Life Office Oct. 13 at 10 a.m. in front of Deanz Health Care for Women, 5437 Crowder Blvd. in New Orleans East.

The clinic has applied with the state’s Department of Health for a license to perform abortions, said Ben Clapper, director of Louisiana Right to Life. The doctor who would perform the abortions is Dr. Rashonda Dean, a native of Opelousas, Louisiana, who has performed abortions in Louisiana since at least 2012.

Clapper said conservative estimates are that Dean has performed nearly 16,000 abortions since 2012 at Delta Clinic for Women in Baton Rouge and Women’s Health Care Center, 2701 Gen. Pershing St. in New Orleans.

Earlier this year, Clapper said, Dean left the employment of those two facilities in order to open her own clinic. Those two facilities are owned by Leroy Brinkley, a native of Delaware, Clapper said.

“It’s a crude statement, but it’s like a chef who’s trying to open up her own restaurant – she’s taking out the middle man and saying they need her,” Clapper said.

The regional Planned Parenthood clinic on 4636 S. Claiborne Ave., which opened in May 2016, still does not have an abortion license. Planned Parenthood has filed suit in federal court in Baton Rouge to force the state to allow it to perform abortions.

When Planned Parenthood opened its clinic 28 months ago, it announced plans to perform 2,844 abortions a year. Had it been licensed for abortion, it could have performed 6,636 abortions by now, Clapper said.

“In the age of legalized abortion that we live in, every day that abortions aren’t happening, a baby is saved,” Clapper said. “Any time a baby is not lost to abortion is a victory, and we need to celebrate that.”