Not to be outdone by the Planned Parenthood abortion business, which is besieging the Senate with more than 700,000 messages urging lawmakers to not yank its federal funding, pro-life groups have responded with a massive campaign of their own.
Today, the Expose Planned Parenthood Coalition — an ad hoc group of more than 30 pro-life organizations including LifeNews.com — announced that nearly 1.2 million mailed petitions and emails have been sent to Congress urging support for the Pence Amendment. That’s the provision the House passed by a strong margin and added to the Continuing Resolution which would deny all taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood through September.
Concerned Women for America alone has generated 980,000 mailed petitions to the House of Representatives and Family Research Council Action (FRC Action), the Susan B. Anthony List and Catholic Advocate Voice have generated more than 190,000 direct e-mails and petition signatures to Congress.
The groups have led the effort to de-fund the abortion provider following the release of Live Action’s undercover footage from Planned Parenthood clinics across the country showing employees aiding and abetting in alleged sex trafficking of minors, further evidence that the organization is not safe for women and children.
“More than one million Americans have stepped forward to send a clear message to our elected leaders: whether pro-life or pro-abortion we do not believe that tax dollars should be used to finance abortion services. The time to permanently end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood is now,” said Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America.
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, added, “The American people continue to speak out – we should not be subsidizing organizations that use our tax dollars in such immoral and devious ways.”
Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the SBA List, told LifeNews.com: “Leaders and PR consultants at Planned Parenthood are in a panic over brand damage and an incumbent loss of a third of their budget — and they should be.”
“Simply repeating ‘service to women’ can no longer be a substitute for actual woman-centered service. What we see in its business model is the disservice the suffrage movement fought against: the exploitation of women and girls. In tidal waves reminiscent of the fight against federal funding of abortion in health care, citizens are rejecting their forced fiscal partnership with Planned Parenthood,” she said.
Matt Smith, Vice President of Catholic Advocate, also weighed in and told LifeNews, “Catholics from around the country are speaking out about this injustice. They understand the constant teaching of our Church that it is unjustifiable to perform abortions or willingly cooperate in their execution as Planned Parenthood has repeatedly done with our tax dollars.”
The pro-life groups have their work cut out for them as Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama oppose the Planned Parenthood de-funding provision and are making it hard to move forward on the effort.
According to the Planned Parenthood’s latest report, in 2009, the organization performed 332,278 abortions, the most it has performed in a year to date, but referred merely 977 women for adoption. In 2008, it performed 324,008 abortions and referred 2,405 for adoption—all the while receiving more than $363 million in government grants and contracts for the year.
With approximately 1.2 million abortions done annually in the United States via surgical abortions or the mifepristone abortion drug, Planned Parenthood has increased its share of the abortion industry to 27.6 percent of all abortions done annually.
The new document the abortion organization posted shows Planned Parenthood provided prenatal services to merely 7,021 women and referred only 977 women for adoption services. These numbers were a 25 percent drop in prenatal care clients and a whopping 59 percent decline in adoption referrals from the 2,405 adoption referrals in 2008. The abortion business helped only 9,433 prenatal clients in 2008, down substantially from the 11,000 women it provided prenatal care to in 2007 — showing health care given to pregnant woman has fallen substantially over the years.
As a result, 97.6 percent of pregnant women going to Planned Parenthood are sold abortions while less than 2.4 percent of pregnant women received non-abortion services including adoption and prenatal care. That’s up from 96.5 percent of pregnant women going to Planned Parenthood getting abortions in 2008.
