(I'm 5 in from the right. You can only see the top part of my head! No, I did not have a hat)

Group prays outside Planned Parenthood for Lent

Published : Thursday, 10 Mar 2011, 11:40 PM EST

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - A group will be praying in front of Lafayette's Planned Parenthood for 40 days. The group in Lafayette is part of a larger international movement that's been growing since 2007, This is the first time Planned Parenthood in Lafayette has had a group set up a post to pray.

From 7:00 AM until 7:00 PM, a small group will be stationed outside of the Lafayette Planned Parenthood offices. Robert Weeks will be there. He is no stranger to a prayer vigil, he prays at the Lafayette Planned Parenthood site every Saturday Morning. He said he wants women to know there are resources to help them with their child.

"If some people are thinking ' I don't have money', for some people that's one of the main things is ' I don't have the means monetarily to provide for the needs of my child,'" said Weeks.

President of Planned Parenthood Indiana Betty Cockrum said those who protest Planned Parenthood are attacking those who need its services most.

"The meanness is tiresome, the lack of support for low-income women, and birth control is tiresome. The vast majority of services is to low-income women," said Cockrum.

Members of the group said they are not protesting, only offering peaceful prayers. Cockrum disagrees and said their presence is disruptive to patients seeking all types of services.

"When women have already struggled without that decision by the time they come to our location. It's never an easy thing to do and so to further harass them and burden them is really an unfortunate choice of behavior," said Cockrum.

Planned Parenthood said only 6% of patients use the clinic's abortion services. Weeks hopes the prayer vigil will change minds including those of the women who come to the medical facility. He wants them to see the prayer group and decide to go elsewhere, somewhere that doesn't offer abortions.

"It's like if you would go to any other place, and then find out they're doing something very disturbing, you would make the choice to go somewhere else to get the services," said Weeks.

The local group will remain outside Planned Parenthood's offices until April 17th.