Planned Parenthood Calls 40 Days of Life Participants "Harassing Extremists"
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 10, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Across the country, pro-life advocates are participating in a peaceful, prayerful event to oppose abortion and reach out to women going to abortion centers. But, Planned Parenthood has another name for the thousands of Americans participating in the 40 Days of Life — "harassing extremists."
Planned Parenthood emailed its supporters on Friday a letter from a staff member, named "Emily X" who says she is writing because pro-life advocates are outside her local abortion business.
The letter urges abortion activists to support the nation’s largest abortion business in what has become the latest tactic used to respond to pro-life advocates outside their facilities — the pledge a picketer campaign.
"The same old group of picketers that show up every year about this time at Planned Parenthood health centers across the nation," Emily writes. "This year, the 40-day protests end November 2; it’s no accident that Election Day is two days later."
Emily claims the pro-life advocates are "trying to make it more difficult for women to access health care."
She complains, "It really bothers me that Planned Parenthood has to devote our limited resources to dealing with extremists harassing our patients at a time when millions of women lack health insurance — that’s money that should be going to help the people who rely on Planned Parenthood."
Emily says she eventually counted 600 pro-life advocates at various 40 Days events she drove around to and the pledge drive netted $50,000.
"This year I’m hoping we’ll raise more. Those nickels and dimes add up. You have no idea how far we can make donations go at Planned Parenthood," she writes.
Emily closes the email saying she is thankful that pro-life advocates aren’t at every Planned Parenthood.
"Plus — the protesters aren’t at all of our centers (that would be pretty hard, since there are more than 880 centers across the country), and… well, Planned Parenthood has been doing this for 90 years," she says.
However, with the growth the event is experiencing, that may not be hard to fathom in the future.
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