Missouri Right to Life will host its first "Pro-Life Action Day" today at the State Capitol to persuade legislators to pass legislation limiting abortions.
The rally begins at noon and features speaker Sue Thayer, a former Storm Lake, Iowa, Planned Parenthood center planner.
Thayer became involved with Planned Parenthood in 1991 and left in late 2008.
"I wanted to help women," she said. "So I started out working at a family planning center."
Thayer said she eventually left because she felt Planned Parenthood had a for-profit mission that did not prioritize women.
"I began to question their goals," Thayer said. "What they were doing wasn't right."
After Thayer left the organization, she said it "took a couple of years before she had the courage to say anything." Now she attends events and rallies to talk about her experience, most recently addressing a crowd at the Nebraska March For Life.
Thayer says she's previously worked with Missouri Right to Life's Pro-Life Action days. She said she is currently working through a whistleblower lawsuit and hopes to encourage dialogues between legislators and pro-life constituents.
"People ask me, "But what about the good that (Planned Parenthood has) done?'" she said. "And I say that it's like when good people do good things, but then they go and rob a bank - that negates the good things they've done. A lot of things happened there to open my eyes and see them in a different light."
Registration begins in the Capitol rotunda at 11 a.m. A meet and greet with the legislators will be held from 1-2 p.m.
A second 2016 Pro-Life Action Day will be held on April 5.