At least 68,000 people picketed Planned Parenthood clinics over the weekend during a nationwide protest, organizers say.
That would make the Saturday protest the largest one ever against the women’s health and abortion provider, according to Created Equal President Mark Harrington, who said he is still waiting attendance numbers from 70 of the clinic sites where abortion opponents gathered.
Local anti-abortion groups sponsored protests at about half of Planned Parenthood’s some-700 clinics around the country. The largest protest was held in St. Paul, Minn., where 4,000 people are estimated to have attended.
“This past Saturday’s #ProtestPP event exceeded all our wildest expectations,” Harrington said. “Boosting our pro-life presence at Planned Parenthood is one of the most important ways we can keep pressure on this corrupt and evil organization, and continue to expose the truth about them to our neighbors.”
Crowds of at least 1,000 were estimated to have gathered outside clinics in Phoenix and Tempe, Ariz., Charlotte, N.C., Cincinnati, and Aurora, Ill., according to an attendance count posted on a website set up for the event, protestpp.com.
The protests were prompted by a series of videos from anti-abortion investigator David Daleiden, who infiltrated several Planned Parenthood clinics disguised as a buyer for a human tissue company. The footage shows top Planned Parenthood officials and employees of biomedical companies that contracted with clinics to provide aborted fetal tissue.
Planned Parenthood says it has done nothing wrong, but the videos have prompted investigations by Congress and states into whether it illegally profited from selling the organs or broke the law by performing partial-birth abortions. The controversy likely will remain front-and-center as Congress returns to Washington after its August recess.
Pro-Life Action League Executive Director Eric Scheidler, another organizer of the protest, told the Washington Examiner last week that they intend more coordinated protests in the future, but there are no concrete plans yet. Harrington said Tuesday that he and the other organizers are “looking closely at the results from Saturday to determine a path forward for #ProtestPP.”
Nearly every major anti-abortion group co-sponsored and participated in the Saturday protests, with the notable exception of National Right to Life. The group didn’t respond when asked why it wasn’t included in a list of co-sponsors.
