Pro-Abortion Stop Stupak Rally Turnout Low, Pro-Life Groups Respond to Event
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 2, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Abortion advocates lowered expectations on their pro-abortion Stop Stupak rally today when they predicted they would have only about 500 people show up from across the nation. Judging from their Twitter posts today, it appears the number was even lower.
NARAL could only come up with fa handful of states that were represented by local pro-abortion activists, but that didn’t appear to temper their excitement. The number was small enough that the abortion activists could fit into a "room" at the Capitol.
"As the rally gets ready to start, the room is filling up and the signs are out," NARAL wrote on its Twitter page. "Lots of people coming in … met supporters from New York, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and Maryland."
Earlier, NARAL indicated that "we’re up to 56 constituents in Warner’s office," nothing that just a few dozen local pro-abortion activists bothered to show up to talk to pro-abortion Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia.
Planned Parenthood also tweeted about the event and said there were "resounding jeers and boos" when the Hyde amendment prohibiting direct funding of abortion was mentioned. But with polls showing two-thirds of the American people don’t like taxpayer funded abortions, that could explain the paltry turnout.
The abortion business posted a picture of the rally with the message "Great turnout." The picture showed no more than 20 people.
Pro-life groups responded to the rally with encouragement for the lawmakers supporting efforts to remove abortion funding from the health care bills.
Today the Susan B. Anthony List announced a $15,000 radio campaign in the northern Michigan district of Representative Bart Stupak and the Pennsylvania district of Representative Joe Pitts.
The ads, funded through grassroots donations nationwide, thank both members for their efforts to exclude government-funded abortion from health care reform.
“Congressman Bart Stupak is a courageous pro-life Democrat in the mold of former Governor Bob Casey,” SBA president Marjorie Dannenfelser told LifeNews.com today. “Susan B. Anthony List members are thankful for his partnership with Congressman Joe Pitts to ensure that health care reform legislation is not used to usher in massive government-funding for abortion.”
“Unfortunately Stupak’s leadership did not come without a price – since his pro-life legislative success, abortion advocates have sought to tear him and his pro-life allies down," she continued.
"They resorted to campaigns of intimidation, including a effort to send coat hangers to Democratic supporters of the Stupak amendment. I urge pro-life members to stand strong against the desperate tactics of the abortion lobby. Members who support Stupak also represent the majority of their constituents. Americans – women included – reject the radical feminist vision of an abortion for every home, at government expense," she said.
Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest also weighed in on the rally and noted the mixed message pro-abortion leaders are giving women and the public.
“By confusing abortion with health care, the feminist groups and the abortion lobby actually demean women with their argument that the destruction of unborn children is essential to feminine power," she said.
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