Thousands of protesters in over 320 cities across the nation and in at least five other countries gathered at Planned Parenthood clinics Saturday to call out the organization’s practices of harvesting the body parts of aborted babies for potential sale to biomedical companies, and to demand that Congress defund Planned Parenthood.
Alejandro Capote spoke at the Louisville, Kentucky, protest, where he estimates at least 500 people participated.
“I spoke about the importance of defunding Planned Parenthood,” Capote tells Breitbart News. “It’s important that women have health care that does not fund abortion.”
“Planned Parenthood believes babies are worth more dead than alive,” he stated, adding:
Women and children are not for sale. Planned Parenthood should not be allowed to continue to treat children like a commodity. We continue to see this through the videos by Center for Medical Progress, that children are being dismembered and cut up so their organs can be harvested for profit.
“I told those attending the protest in Louisville that any candidate running for office who does not publicly denounce Planned Parenthood and call for its defunding are complicit in the abortion organization’s policies,” Capote said.
Theresa King, who organized the Falls Church, Virginia, #ProtestPP rally told Breitbart News she decided to be an organizer after viewing the Center for Medical Progress videos.
“I saw the Planned Parenthood videos and felt the need to act,” she said. “As a kid, I would pray outside of abortion clinics, and my mom always said that we were giving the babies the only funeral they would ever have, so I felt the need to stand for the babies in the video, but for all the babies that have died in abortion.”
“I’m also standing for women. I think they deserve so much more than Planned Parenthood offers them,” she added.
King said she informed the Falls Church police to expect about 100 people to attend her protest, but ended up with approximately 800.
She explained that many people who came to the protest came for the babies and were getting involved for the first time.
“These videos have really brought a lot to light and have convinced people to become active,” she said. “I’ve never done anything like this, and I look forward to many more, as other people are in the same boat. We are here to be a voice for both the babies and the women.”
Wendy Wright, who also attended the Falls Church protest, informed Breitbart News there were people of every age, “from babies to teens to young parents and grandparents.”
“People drove from two hours away to protest Planned Parenthood,” she explained. “Their towns have women’s medical clinics, but not Planned Parenthood facilities.”
“One man came from an hour away with his young son,” Wright continued. “The man volunteers at his local pregnancy center, counseling the men of women considering an abortion.”
“For many of the women, it’s not their decision whether to have an abortion, but rather their boyfriend or husband’s,” she explained. “His counseling focuses on how to be a good dad. To his surprise, a number of the men do not know the basics of being a dad–and are thankful to learn.”
Jennifer Mitchell in Stamford, Connecticut, organized her city’s #ProtestPP demonstration. Mitchell, who had organized a #WomenBetrayed rally last month, said her protest opened with a prayer, followed by the praying of the Joyful Mysteries of the rosary.
Mitchell shared why she decided to lead her protest: “We cannot become complacent and hope for the best,” she asserted. “We are asked by God to be His hands and feet and to serve our brothers and sisters. This includes our brothers and sisters in the womb.”
“Abortion is committed against all races and genders, and looking the other way is not a solution,” she added. “Silence in the face of evil, is evil itself. It is my hope and prayer that everyone who believes in a God, regardless of religion, can place themselves in front of their maker on Judgment Day and answer the question, ‘How did you protect the precious life that I created and gave so generously to you?’”
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Susan Yoshihara, senior vice president of Center for Family & Human Rights (C-Fam), is also a board member of Rhode Island Right to Life, which organized the event with the Diocese of Providence.
Yoshihara shared with Breitbart News that about 500 people turned out at the Providence Planned Parenthood to protest.
“Planned Parenthood’s gruesome sale of fetal body parts has also demonstrated that there is a vibrant pro-life presence even in hardcore liberal Democratic places like Rhode Island,” she said.
Yoshihara reported that more than a dozen “Planned Parenthood staff in pink T-shirts appeared on the steps of their building with an iPhone and small speaker tinning out Blind Melon tracks to distract protesters.”
“The facade of Planned Parenthood’s public perception as a beacon for women’s health has been peeled back in the last few weeks,” she added. “The videos showed Planned Parenthood clinicians admitting they put women at greater risk, turning unborn children breech to be delivered feet first, in order to make sure the brain could be harvested for sale.”
#ProtestPP is a coalition headed by Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, Created Equal, 40 Days for Life, and the Pro-Life Action League, and is co-sponsored by more than 50 state and national pro-life organizations.
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