April 30, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-life supporters took to the public square across the U.S. Saturday to protest Planned Parenthood, call on President Donald Trump to put a stop to taxpayer subsidization of the abortion giant, and raise awareness to the reality behind its abortion business.
More than 5,000 took part in #ProtestPP demonstrations at 151 Planned Parenthood facilities in 40 states for the third annual National Day of Prayer and Protest Against Planned Parenthood.
The event is sponsored by the three national pro-life activist groups – Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, Created Equal and Pro-Life Action League – and supported by some sixty-plus state and national pro-life groups.
“A major focus of the protests was to call on Trump to change the rules governing Title X family planning funds to exclude Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from eligibility,” #ProtestPP Co-Director Eric Scheidler told LifeSiteNews. “This would deprive the organization of $60-80 million annually.”
Advisor to the president Kellyane Conway is said to have told Trump about the #ProtestPP rallies across the nation during a discussion Friday where she encouraged him to follow through on his campaign promise to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood as long as the organization continues performing abortions.
Conway also pointed out to the president that Planned Parenthood spends millions of dollars on political races, Axios.com reports.
“Another goal for #ProtestPP was to educate the American public about Planned Parenthood,” said Scheidler, Executive Director for the Pro-Life Action League, “especially their huge 35% share of the U.S. abortion market.”
A new flyer called “Getting to Know Planned Parenthood” was distributed at the Aurora, IL, protest and others across the country on Saturday, Scheidler said.
Guest speakers at the Indianapolis, Indiana protest included Monica Kelsey, the pro-life activist who spearheaded the “Safe Haven” baby boxes campaign throughout the U.S.
In Livonia, Michigan, 40 people came out for a rally at the site of a Planned Parenthood facility that had recently closed.
In Aurora, Scheidler told LifeSiteNews, counter-protestors came dressed in the iconic red robes of Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale. Pro-abortion advocates often use the novel and related costumes in their protests.
The #ProtestPP movement came together in 2015 in the immediate aftermath of the Center for Medical Progress videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s bartering in aborted fetal body parts, when tens of thousands of pro-life supporters gathered August 22 and October 10 for national days of protest.
There were 654 individual protests held at 374 Planned Parenthood facilities throughout the United States overall, including abortion locations that had not had a pro-life witness in years. The protests garnered significant media coverage, reaching millions of Americans, and in August of that year, #ProtestPP was the number-one hashtag trending on Twitter and Facebook.
The first annual nationwide Planned Parenthood protest was established in April 2016, with plans to hold this nationally coordinated event each April. #ProtestPP prayer vigils were then held in October 2016 at more than 100 Planned Parenthood locations to mark the abortion provider’s 100th anniversary.
#ProtestPP is now focused on stripping Planned Parenthood of its nearly half-billion dollars in annual federal funding and shift those taxpayer dollars to Federally Qualified Health Centers which offer a far wider range of services that benefit women and do not perform abortions.
“We're calling on President Trump to end Planned Parenthood's Title X family planning funding,” Scheidler told LifeSiteNews.
Organizers also spoke about Planned Parenthood’s aggressive new agenda in their call for pro-lifers to attend this year’s demonstration, as well as educating those not yet fully aware of the truth about Planned Parenthood – such as the fact the abortion giant has about 35% of the abortion market while conducting only 1% of pap tests and only 2% of breast exams.
Also included in this year’s focus was the abortion business’s recent announcement of a “Sweeping Initiative,” where it was “going on the offense” to expand across the U.S.
Part of this is a $30 million campaign to advance its agenda in this year’s elections in November, targeting female, young and minority voters in the midterm races in Florida, Michigan, and Nevada.
Representatives of the other two national groups sponsoring the #ProtestPP event, Created Equal and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, told LifeSiteNews in the run-up to the demonstration it was imperative to stand up for the helpless unborn, and that the prayerful protests would continue until tax-funding of abortion is abolished and abortion done away with altogether.
Click HERE for more information on the fight to defund Planned Parenthood.