FORT WORTH, Texas, March 1, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-life students protested the Planned Parenthood fundraiser at which Barbara Bush, daughter of former President George W. Bush, spoke this afternoon.
“Our efforts today were part of a larger movement – a movement to create a sustainable and consistent pro-life presence around the nation,” said Jillian Ferguson, Texas regional coordinator for Students for Life of America. “We're sending the message that we don't need or want Planned Parenthood. For someone like Barbara Bush [who] so clearly cares about people, it doesn't make sense that she would dedicate her time, abilities, and talents to an organization that so clearly does not care about people.”
Bush is the CEO and co-founder of Global Health Corps. The organization's mission is to “mobilize a global community of emerging leaders to build the movement for health equity” and build “a network of young changemakers who share a common belief: Health is a human right.” The senior staff members of Global Health Corps have experience in promoting “women's rights.” Its senior director of advocacy and communications is a former board member of Planned Parenthood the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands and the Pacific Northwest Abortion Fund.
“While children aren’t beholden to their parents’ ideals, values and moral views, it is disappointing that Barbara Bush, daughter of President George W. Bush, is keynoting a Planned Parenthood fundraiser, especially since her father held clearly anti-abortion public stances,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America. “Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion vendor and promotes abortion worldwide. There is no amount of good they can possibly do to make up for taking hundreds of thousands of innocent lives every year, which is something we wish Barbara Bush would have considered before accepting the keynote speech.”
Local media reported that more than 1,000 people attended the sold-out fundraiser. Tickets cost $150 per person with sponsorship levels up to $20,000.
Come and join the #prolifegen Barbara Bush! Don't buy Planned Parenthood's lies. #wedontneedPP #ftworth pic.twitter.com/XxloA0izxG
— Students for Life (@Students4LifeHQ) March 1, 2017
Pro-life protestors outside Omni Ft. Worth where Barbara Bush speaking at sold out #PlannedParenthood luncheon to more than 1,000 attendees pic.twitter.com/sicEjDfQJi
— Lynnanne Nguyen (@LynnanneFOX4) March 1, 2017
“Barbara Bush is fundraising for a corporation that dismembers, poisons, and starves to death 887 innocent preborn children in the womb every day,” said Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action. “We urge Barbara to pull her support from the abortion corporation, and instead use whatever platform she has to defend the rights of the most vulnerable. Live Action's latest investigation shows that Planned Parenthood is masking their abortion practices with lies about providing the most basic health care to women who are pregnant — the corporation provides virtually no prenatal care, despite its claims otherwise. There's one choice for women who are pregnant at Planned Parenthood: abortion.”
The band The Lumineers is donating all profits from a show yesterday in Dallas to Planned Parenthood.
“To read news stories about attempts to defund this … healthcare in Texas for so many women (and men) is disturbing and has moved us to act,” its lead singer, Wesley Schultz, said.
Recent sting investigations from Live Action show the majority of Planned Parenthood facilities don't offer prenatal care because they “specialize in abortion.” Most Planned Parenthood facilities Live Action investigated were also unable to provide pregnant women with an ultrasound unless it was part of an abortion.