Abortion opponents are planning to protest outside more than 300 Planned Parenthood clinics Saturday morning, in their largest coordinated demonstration yet against the prominent women’s health and abortion provider.
For decades, abortion foes have picketed Planned Parenthood clinics for providing women with hundreds of thousands of abortions every year. But this time, they’ve got something new to rally around: a series of undercover videos highlighting how some of the group’s clinics provide aborted fetal tissue to biomedical companies.
The enormous attention the videos have garnered are prompting the protest organizers to make some bold turnout predictions. Eric Scheidler, director of the Pro-Life Action League, said he’s “fully confident” at least 10,000 people will participate but thinks it’s possible as many as 100,000 might show up.
What’s fueling the interest, organizers say, is how the footage shows Planned Parenthood workers discussing fetal tissue. In one video, an official appears to be haggling over the compensation for a fetus with undercover actors posing as human tissue buyers. In another, a medical director talks about “crushing” some parts of the fetus while keeping desirable organs intact.
“People are absolutely horrified by what they’re seeing,” said Scheidler, who organized the protest with Created Equal President Mark Harrington and Monica Miller, president of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society. “These videos show Planned Parenthood in such a cold blooded, negative, callous light.”
Organizers say hundreds of local anti-abortion groups, chapters and individuals have signed up to lead protests from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. outside about half of all Planned Parenthood’s nearly 700 clinics around the country.
The protests are intended to take place in every state except Wyoming. Scheidler said he expects some of the best-attended protests to take place at clinics where anti-abortion networks are already strong, such as San Antonio, Houston, Detroit, San Diego and St. Paul, Minn.
Harrington said he expects it to be the largest protest against Planned Parenthood in its nearly 100-year history. “I’ve been doing this for about 20 years, and this is the largest nationwide, coordinated protest I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Anti-abortion groups have historically had difficulties coordinating and cooperating with each other, but nearly every major activist and legal-oriented organization is backing the Saturday protest, including the Family Research Council, Susan B. Anthony List and Americans United for Life.
Some prominent evangelical leaders are participating as well. Focus on the Family President Jim Daly urged his Twitter followers to participate. John Piper, a Minneapolis pastor and popular speaker and author, also urged his fans to join in, writing that Planned Parenthood doctors are “killing human beings in there.”
“It seems to me that we are in an unusual moment in our nation,” Piper wrote. “For me, it is time to gather.”
Planned Parenthood Vice President Eric Ferrero said the rallies “are meant to intimidate and harass” the women who visit its health centers for many non-abortion services, including cancer screenings or birth control.
“The people behind these protests have a clear political agenda: they want to ban abortion, and block women and men from accessing basic reproductive health care,” he said. “Unlike these protesters, compassion is at the center of what we do, and we will continue to provide care, and a safe, welcoming environment for our patients, no matter what.”
One tactic that activists have disagreed over might be present at some of the protests: displaying graphic images of aborted fetuses, usually through large, hand-held posters. To Scheidler and Harrington, displaying graphic images would be appropriate Saturday because the protests were prompted by videos showing footage of aborted fetal remains within Planned Parenthood clinics.
“What’s really turning people’s stomachs about these videos is how real they’re making abortion,” Scheidler said. “The thought of where you crush the baby, the thought of where you crush the baby … so we think showing the victims Planned Parenthood is exploiting is totally appropriate under the circumstances of this protest.”
Scheidler said it’s up to local sponsors whether to allow graphic images at their sites. He said he recommends they be used only if those holding the signs show an appropriate solemnity and are willing to talk with anyone who inquires about them.
Anti-abortion investigator David Daleiden started releasing the footage he obtained undercover last month, prompting widespread outrage among conservatives and causing Planned Parenthood to apologize for the way in which its employees talked about fetal tissue donations.
The seven videos released so far feature several top Planned Parenthood officials discussing how some clinics provide aborted fetal organs to biomedical companies, who in turn sell it to medical researchers. Planned Parenthood has said it has done nothing illegal, but abortion foes contend they may have illegally profited from it or performed partial birth abortions.
Organizers say they’re trying to obtain an accurate participation count after the protests conclude. In the meantime, they’re optimistic they will garner lots of participants.
Jim Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League, said he’s never before seen anti-abortion groups hold such a coordinated Planned Parenthood protest before. “There’s never been one quite like this.”
