News

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As pro-abortion forces put immense pressure on federal lawmakers to restore Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding, the Expose Planned Parenthood Coalition is urging pro-lifers to start pushing back with a nationwide vigil Friday at noon in front of House and Senate members’ district offices.

“Planned Parenthood is furious, and is mobilizing abortion advocates across the country while running attack ads in the home districts of courageous House members who voted their conscience,” wrote Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America, one of the coalition members, in an email to supporters Wednesday.

The next step for the bill, she said, is dangerous: the Senate will introduce its own version of the House’s budget bill, likely stripped of all the pro-life gains in the lower chamber’s version, before the two bodies reconcile their versions of the measure. This puts the survival of language gutting Planned Parenthood’s funding at high risk of being scrapped, much like the Stupak amendment in the health care reform bill last year.

“Media outlets are predicting that the measure to strip Planned Parenthood’s tax funding likely won’t survive,” wrote Hawkins. “But we know that “with God, all things are possible” – even removing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars annually from Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion chain!”

Hawkins called on pro-lifers to offer a public prayer witness on Friday, Feb 25, outside the nearest Senator or Representative district office “to pray that they will do the right thing in the days ahead.”

For more information, visit www.exposeplannedparenthood.net

Other pro-life groups have also warned that the abortion lobby, including Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the National Organization for Women, were taking a no-holds-barred approach to obliterating the momentous pro-life amendment that was voted into H.R. 1 last Friday.

NOW wrote in an email alert that the lobbies are “determined to get tens of thousands of emails into the Senate by the end of next week.” Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards has also issued an action alert strongly encouraging supporters to send a message pressuring representatives who had voted for the funding.

Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life encouraged pro-lifers across the country to keep up the fight against the powerful lobbies.

“Make no mistake about it: this was a key victory for life – but it was only the first step in the arduous process of defunding the nation’s largest abortion provider. Now we must stand firm and keep the pressure on the Senate,” said Yoest.