WASHINGTON, DC, April 7, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In the midst of a raging battle over the future of Planned Parenthood’s federal funding, supporters of the national abortion giant descended on Capitol Hill today and were greeted by massive pro-life displays exposing the graphic truth about abortion.
“Pro-Choice Lobby Day,” sponsored by the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) in an effort to counter recent pro-life legislation, included a full day of lobbying Congressional offices, a rally on the National Mall and a closing event at the Russell Senate Office Building.
The mid-day rally on the Mall was attended by Hollywood stars Amy Madigan, Madigan’s husband Ed Harris, and David Eigenberg. Madigan is a board member of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
In response to the NARAL event, Defend Life President Jack Ames and former Congressional candidate Missy Smith called on pro-life supporters to convene in Washington today and confront pro-abortion lobbyists and legislators with the graphic reality of what they are supporting.
“What we do or do not do on April 7 could mark a real turning point in our battle to defund Planned Parenthood,” said a Defend Life email.
Ames and Smith organized a massive 11-banner display that stretched across Senate Park, directly behind the Russell Senate Office Building.
The display featured photos of aborted babies at various stages of development. One banner, titled “The Insanity of ‘Choice,’” contrasted photos of a 24 week old premature infant in a neo-natal intensive care unit and a baby aborted at 24 weeks gestation in a late term abortion facility.
Organizers planned a twelve hour presence, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., so that all the participants in NARAL’s day-long event would have an opportunity to view the display. Members of Students for Life of America were also on the scene, staffing the display and infiltrating the Mall rally.
Pro-lifers attempting to engage rally attendees discovered that NARAL had distributed a waiver form to pro-abortion participants which prohibited them from speaking about or to pro-life demonstrators, a move which Students for Life Field Director Kortney Blythe speculated may have been prompted by a recent Catholic Vote video exposing the radical nature of pro-abortion rhetoric.
Pro-lifers also countered the pro-abortion event with their own lobbying efforts, visiting Congressional offices at the House and Senate.
At issue for both sides is a host of recent pro-life legislative efforts. A NARAL press release promoting the event cited “bills that would allow hospitals to refuse to provide women with life-saving abortion care, slash funds for birth control and cancer screenings, and abolish private insurance coverage of abortion.”
The most prominent issue, however, is whether Planned Parenthood will continue to receive the millions of dollars in tax-payer money that it currently pockets every year. The national abortion giant received $349.6 million from the federal government in 2008 alone.
The House version of a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government through 2011 includes an amendment to strip Planned Parenthood of these funds. Senate Democrats have said that they would allow a government shut down before agreeing to such an amendment, an outcome that looks increasingly likely as the current CR is set to expire tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the abortion industry and its supporters are scrambling to recover from the PR disaster created by recent pro-life sting operations and the Congressional reaction that they appear to have prompted.
“The onslaught of extreme, anti-choice legislation on Capitol Hill is nothing short of alarming,” said NARAL President Nancy Keenan. “We knew after Election Day last November that we were in for the fight of our lives.”
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