WASHINGTON, D.C., February 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Roses in hand, a large crowd gathered on 16th and L in Washington, D.C. – and although it was Valentine’s Day, this observance was very different.
The event was the Vigil for Victims – a call to action that reports suggest brought peaceful protesters of abortion in front of more than 200 offices across the United States affiliated with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
But unlike the witnesses that stand before Planned Parenthoods and other abortion clinics on a regular basis, week by week, the witnesses before the Planned Parenthood on 16th Street joined a nationwide spirit of conviction that enough is enough.
Among the speakers was Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, who recalled the words of Planned Parenthood founder and eugenicist Margaret Sanger, in light of the recent Live Action videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s complicity with sex traffickers of young girls.
“That’s Margeret Sangers’s words: ‘human weeds,’” said Dannenfelser, quoting Sanger’s reference to “unfit” members of society such as immigrants and the indigent. “We can see the deep roots of that exploitation of human beings in an unbroken track record that Planned Parenthood has rolled out over the years.”
Live Action president Lila Rose was also present at the vigil, where she spoke passionately on behalf of both victims of abortion: the unborn, and the girl whose motherhood is brutally terminated as a mere inconvenience to the illegal sex industry. “We also are standing for the victims of abuse who are taken [in for abortions] and sent right back out into the arms of their abusers,” said Rose.
The vigil came on the heels of a series of blows to the billion-dollar organization, which depends heavily on abortion income, despite the national office’s emphasis of other services provided. Charts published by the Associated Press on Saturday showed Planned Parenthood’s breakdown in which abortion counts for 3 percent of all services rendered in the 2008-09 period. A second pie chart shows, however, that health center income accounts for more than a third of its revenue, 37 percent.
Although the group’s annual report does not offer a breakdown of which services provide the most revenue, sources from within Planned Parenthood say the answer is quite clear to executives themselves: former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson confirmed that abortion was the primary means for recovering the losses from other services such as STD testing and contraception.
A factsheet released by PPFA last September indicates that the group performed 324,008 abortions in 2008. A New-Jersey Star Ledger reporter last month uncovered the national organization’s plan to expand abortion even further, mandating all affiliates to perform abortions by 2013.
While abortion may be a lucrative business, pro-life activists are hoping to be able to do something about the second-largest source of income for Planned Parenthood – government grants – which props up another third of the organization’s income.
Last Thursday, coalition leaders hosted a joint press conference with members of the Pro-Life Woman’s Caucus and other Congressional leaders, including 14 House members in all, to demand that federal tax dollars stop funding the nation’s top abortion provider.
“What we have seen in the past couple weeks remind us of the horrors that are associated with the abortion industry,” said Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), referring to the Live Action videos and the recently exposed abortionist Kermit Gosnell and his “house of horrors” Philadelphia abortion clinic.
“Not only should Congress be defunding clinics like these, but we should also be urging investigations into abortion clinics across the country, so a tragedy like the one in Philadelphia, does not happen again.”
Abortion lobbyists are up in arms against several pro-life initiatives making their way through the House, including the Protect Life Act, which would stop taxpayer funding of elective abortion under the health care reform law, and the No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act, which would enshrine Hyde-amendment restrictions in federal law.
The National Right to Life Committee reports that House lawmakers were scheduled to vote Tuesday and Thursday on multiple abortion-related amendments to a major budget bill, including one offered by Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN), to strip Planned Parenthood and its affiliates of all federal funds.
For more information, visit exposeplannedparenthood.com