March 16, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The winner of a pro-life contest for videos urging Congress to de-fund the Planned Parenthood Federation of America has a chilling story to tell.
Melissa Pereira says that because of the courage of her sexually-abused mother, she managed to avoid an early encounter with the abortion giant – something two of her older siblings sadly did not avoid.
“26 years ago, my mother was forced into a Planned Parenthood with her supposed husband. Dear Congress, he was her sexual abuser,” says Pereira, a student at Caldwell College in New Jersey. “My mother, scared and frightened, was five months pregnant. Planned Parenthood told her that it was just a blob of cells, that it was just tissue. So much for being informed.
“With state-funded money, my sibling was aborted.”
Pereira’s video won $1,000 in the “Tell Congress” Youtube video contest hosted by Live Action, Students for Life of America and others to support the de-funding of Planned Parenthood.
A year after the first abortion, Pereira says her mother became pregnant again. While Planned Parenthood gave her no counseling, an employee referred Pereira’s father to a local hospital where another abortion was performed. Her father “knew just where to go to find the support he needed … and to hear what he wanted to hear about choices,” said Pereira.
But when a third pregnancy happened, “my mother refused to go anywhere, she chose to keep that child. I was that child,” says Pereira. She adds that she and her mother continued to be abused by Pereira’s father, who she says is now a registered sex offender.
Pereira says she was forced one day to call 911 while her father repeatedly punched her mother’s pregnant belly, “a brutal solution to manage her fertility” that ended the life of Pereira’s third sibling.
“Planned Parenthood believes that unwanted children will turn into criminals. But they need to open their eyes and see that these people who are doing these abuses are the real criminals,” she said.
The “Tell Congress” contest was open to all high school and college-age youth (14 to 25). Contestants were urged to use creativity in addressing Congress and explaining why they should de-fund Planned Parenthood. Three more videos won runner-up prizes, and four more received an honorable mention.
Lila Rose, president of Live Action, praised the creative spirit behind the winning entries. “Together, we stand for the protection of our unborn brothers and sisters, and we will work to expose organizations like Planned Parenthood which destroy innocent human beings and cover up the abuse of our young peers,” she said in a statement Tuesday.
To learn more about the effort to de-fund Planned Parenthood, visit the Expose Planned Parenthood Coalition’s website.