March 7, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two of the United States’ top pro-life groups today launched a 4-day, 2000-mile bus tour to raise awareness about the need to defund the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
The “Women Speak Out: Defund Planned Parenthood” bus tour is led by Live Action president Lila Rose and former Colorado Rep. Marilyn Musgrave. It will include press conferences and rallies in 13 congressional districts.
Each stop will feature local pro-life leaders thanking Members of the U.S. House of Representatives who voted for Rep. Mike Pence’s amendment to strip Planned Parenthood of its over $300 million in federal funding, and targeting Members who voted against it.
The Senate is scheduled this week to vote on the measure. Pro-life groups with the Expose Planned Parenthood Coalition have launched an all-out effort to lobby U.S. senators to pass it.
“Planned Parenthood is a corrupt organization that aids and abets the sex trafficking of minor girls,” said Rose. “A vote to funnel federal dollars into the nation’s biggest abortion business is a vote to make taxpayers accomplices in the exploitation of women and children, even at a time when our country is broke.”
Rose said pro-lifers “commend” politicians who voted to defund Planned Parenthood, but “now they must stand strong and hold the line in negotiations with the Senate.”
“American taxpayers and American women don’t want to subsidize abortion or those who aid and abet the victimization of young girls.”
Musgrave concurred with Rose, saying: “Planned Parenthood’s business model is destructive for women, unborn children and young girls and is offensive to taxpayers.
“This campaign is a reminder of what the mid-term election was all about – the power of the pro-life grassroots.”
Musgrave said that “pouring millions of dollars” into an organization that has been exposed as being willing to aid sex traffickers and cover up the abuse of minors, “makes no sense, especially at a time when our country is drowning in debt.
“The message is clear: not with our tax dollars. We will accept nothing less than the total defunding of Planned Parenthood.”
The tour will make 11 stops, covering 13 districts across Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island and New Hampshire from Monday, March 7 to Thursday, March 10.
Already this morning the bus stopped in Des Moines, Iowa, and Davenport, Iowa, and the tour will make another stop in Geneva Illinois this afternoon.
The tour is a part of a larger $200,000 grassroots campaign including radio and television ads thanking Members for their votes to defund Planned Parenthood.
The tour schedule is available here.