More than 70 Ohio pastors in House Speaker John Boehner’s district are begging him to transfer federal funds away from Planned Parenthood, whose leadership was recently caught on video describing their gruesome organs-for-cash business.
“Our purpose wasn’t to call John Boehner out, it was to appeal to him as Speaker of the House to do something about this,” Dale Christian, pastor of First Baptist Church in Troy, Ohio, told Breitbart News.
“Now’s the time to do it because of the [annual] budget process,” he added.
Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Boehner, told Breitbart News the office has received the letter and Boehner will respond.
Every fall, Congress allocates spending for a myriad federal programs, including roughly $550 million for Planned Parenthood that funds programs for women’s health and contraception. That funding doesn’t pay for abortions, but it helps the group run its entire operation, including the abortion facilities where the organs of mangled and intact aborted babies are sliced up for delivery to research centers.
Christian launched the drive after watching the videotapes of Planned Parenthood officials talking about their transfer of aborted babies’ organs. “It just touched my heart,” he explained. “Our daughter is expecting our first grandchild. We just found out it’s going to be a little girl. She’s already been named, Lindsey Nicole, and you know that child, she’s a baby, just because she hasn’t been born yet, doesn’t mean she’s not a baby.”
“Within two weeks… within that short period of time, we had 70 pastors sign,” he said, adding more are coming in, and they anticipate on sending the letter again to get Boehner’s attention. “We’re thinking if you have, you know 150 or so pastors that represent you know 10, 15, 20,000 people, he’s got to listen to us,” Christian stated.
A member of Christian’s congregation, JD Winteregg – who is also challenging John Boehner in the GOP’s primary – also spoke to Breitbart News about the letter.
“I think it’s outstanding that we’ve got pastors, ministers, and priests in the district who are willing to lead by example in asking Speaker Boehner to do what he promised he would do–not allow any federal money to go to funding abortion,” Winteregg told Breitbart News. “Speaker Boehner should absolutely meet and listen to them, and I hope and pray that clergymen around the nation will follow their lead by demanding that their representatives act swiftly to defund Planned Parenthood.”
Christian and a fellow local pastor Johnathan Newman, reached out to fellow faith leaders in Ohio’s 8th District to see if they would sign on to a letter requesting a meeting with their local representative, Boehner.
The letter to Boehner begins by reminding him of his new grandchild. “Congratulations on the birth of your new baby grandson! We are praying for you, Sir, and we are thankful for your pro-life conviction that you have demonstrated in numerous ways,” it says.
The letter explains the group of faith leaders in Ohio’s 8th District is “profoundly horrified by the unimaginable actions exposed in the videos of Planned Parenthood.”
“As our representative and our voice in Congress, we plead with you to hear our cry for help. We implore you to also hear the cry of the unborn who have no voice. We urge you to do the two following things: one, lead Congress to defund Planned Parenthood via the budget approval process, and two, please come to District 8 and meet with us as soon as possible. We desire to be assured that your resolve and plan of action will be sufficient to get this accomplished in the current budget cycle.”
The letter also asks, “If pro-life leaders in Congress will not take this action now, when will they?”
Christian said the members of his congregation are aware of the letter and a request to meet with Boehner by the faith leaders. “They know about the letter. They’ve been praying about it and the meeting … the possibility of meeting with John Boehner,” he explained, saying the agenda of the meeting would be to stress the importance of defunding Planned Parenthood since he understands the organization is responsible for roughly a third of all the abortions in the United States.
The letter was sent last Thursday to Boehner’s office.
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