Pro-lifers attack abortion funding

DEMAND: NO FEDERAL MONIES TO TERMINATION CLINICS

Activists say money for other purposes is being used to end pregnancies.

Anti-abortion protesters rallied at scores of Planned Parenthood clinics on Saturday to urge Congress and President Donald Trump to strip the health services provider of federal funding, while supporters of the organisation staged counter-demonstrations countrywide.

With anti-abortion groups expecting protests at up to 225 clinics, Planned Parenthood supporters organised 150 protests of their own at parks, government buildings and other sites, including clinics.

At some of those clinics, the counter-demonstrators outnumbered those demanding an end to federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Rallies and marches were called in 45 states in cities large and small – from Washington and Philadelphia to St Paul, Minnesota, and Orange, California.

As many as 6 000 people turned up for competing demonstrations in St Paul, police said, but at other places, only a few dozen demonstrators turned out.

“We expected that tens of thousands of pro-lifers will be out today sending a message that we want Planned Parenthood to be defunded,” Monica Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and one of the national organizers of the anti-abortion rallies, said in a telephone interview.

“As long as they are going stay in the abortion business, that is an organisation that shouldn’t be getting one red cent of federal tax money,” Miller said.

The 100-year-old organisation of about 650 health centres provides birth control and other women’s health services in addition to abortion, according to its website.

The US Supreme Court legalised abortion in the 1973 Roe versus Wade ruling, but US law prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions. Anti-abortion activists say funding for other purposes acts to subsidise abortions.

“Trump is going to hear our trumpet call,” said anti-abortion activist Sandy Prescott, 61, a homemaker from Roswell, Georgia, who was part of a group of about 100 people demanding an end to federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

At the competing abortion-rights demonstration, about 50 people gathered and held signs that included: “Women’s rights are human rights”. Anti-abortion activists have said they are energised by the election of Trump, who has promised to restrict abortions. He selected their long-time ally, Mike Pence, as vice-president, and nominated conservative jurist Neil Gorsuch to the US Supreme Court. – Reuters