Pro-life activists were protesting Saturday at dozens of Planned Parenthood facilities nationwide. Here is a wrap of some of them:
INDIANA
Anti-abortion supporters protested outside Planned Parenthood facilities in Indiana on Saturday, calling on lawmakers to stop funding the organization.
“We care about women’s health,” Cera McCarragher told about 100 protesters outside a facility in Lafayette, The Journal & Courier reported. “Abortion is not health care. Abortion is a violent violation of a woman’s body.”
In Mishawaka, several hundred people protested a facility just east of South Bend. Some of the protesters held signs with such slogans as “Planned Parenthood: Bad for Michiana” and “Abortion hurts women.” Some motorists honked in support.
“I’m here to raise awareness of this issue,” Alyssa Rosselli of LaPorte told the South Bend Tribune. She said she believes all governmental funding of Planned Parenthood should be eliminated.
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Protests also were held in Evansville and Fort Wayne.
Tammy Lieber, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, said protests at the organization’s facilities are nothing new, saying it had security measures in place.
Republican Gov. Mike Pence had ordered an investigation of Planned Parenthood facilities in Indianapolis, Bloomington and Merrillville to see if organs from aborted fetuses were being sold. The Indiana Department of Health said in a statement July 31 that an investigation found no evidence of any laws being broken.
FLORIDA
MIAMI — Florida health officials recently inspected 16 Planned Parenthood facilities and said three were performing unlicensed second-trimester abortions.
Planned Parenthood disputed the finding, saying the state changed its definition of how they measure first-trimester.
The investigation ordered by Republican Gov. Rick Scott mirrors similar probes in other states after stealthily recorded videos showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing how they provide aborted fetal organs for research. The organization has said it does not profit from tissue donations and that those programs exist in only a handful of states.
Abortion opponents say the videos show the organization is illegally harvesting and selling organs.
Investigations in Massachusetts, Georgia, Indiana and South Dakota found no evidence of wrongdoing.
ARIZONA
Groups opposed to abortion planned protests at several Planned Parenthood offices across Arizona this weekend as part of a nationwide effort to draw attention to the women’s health care and abortion provider.
State Republican Party chairman Robert Graham and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery planned to speak at a rally Saturday morning at the Phoenix Planned Parenthood offices. Demonstrations were also planned at offices in Flagstaff, Glendale, Tempe, Chandler and Flagstaff.
Planned Parenthood plans to respond by allowing supporters to rally at its Phoenix headquarters.
Planned Parenthood has been the subject of renewed criticism since a California group began releasing undercover videos last month of officials discussing aborted fetal organs it provides for research.
Planned Parenthood says allegations it profits from the practice are fabricated accusations made by abortion opponents.
NORTH CAROLINA AND SOUTH CAROLINA
Anti-abortion activists were protesting outside Planned Parenthood clinics across the Carolinas.
The protests in the Carolinas on Saturday morning were among hundreds of protests organized nationwide by anti-abortion groups.
They want to call attention to secretly taped videos that show Planned Parenthood officials elsewhere discussing the collection of fetal organs for research. Activists say the videos released by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress show that Planned Parenthood illegally sells fetal tissue for profit.
Planned Parenthood officials contend that any tissue donations are legal and ethical, as federal law allows abortion providers to be paid for processing fees. Regional officials say no clinic in the Carolinas participates in tissue donation.
The videos have prompted Republican lawmakers across the country to call for investigations.
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