915: the number of pink crosses pro-lifers staked into the lawn of the Capitol on the morning of Oct. 31. 915: also the number of babies aborted daily in the U.S. by Planned Parenthood. And according to a pro-life organizer, that number could double under ObamaCare.
Students for Life of America (SFLA) along with the Christian Defense Coalition (CDC) hosted an event titled “Exposing the Abortion Trifecta: Sebelius, Obamacare, Planned Parenthood [1]” at the Capitol on October 31. As a call on Congress to defund Planned Parenthood, activists staked 915 crosses into the ground, each representing a baby aborted that day in the U.S. by Planned Parenthood.
Via a press conference, CDC's Rev. Patrick Mahoney and SFLA’s Kristan Hawkins introduced their campaign. Mahoney noted the date and stressed, “The scariest thing you can see in Washington, D.C. on Halloween are these 915 crosses on the lawn of the Capitol.”
Continuing with the scary theme, Hawkins noted that “If Obamacare goes through, abortions will increase.”
“When you and I are paying for an insurance plan that someone else couldn't afford that now has abortions, they're going to go up,” she emphasized. She laid out the consequences: “Planned Parenthood is going to be more than a $1 billion industry. They're going to be a $2 billion industry.”
Hawkins said that Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius had been “in bed with Planned Parenthood since she took office.” According to Hawkins, Sebelius “mandated that every insurance provider in the state exchanges has to cover Planned Parenthood services.” She repeated, “They're in bed together. That's why we were calling them the abortion trifecta.”
According the SFLA’s press release, as the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood “stand[s] to make hundreds of millions of taxpayer’s dollars when Obamacare is officially launched on January 1st.”
The press release explained:
“This April, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a regulation ordering health insurance companies to cover Planned Parenthood clinics in their state exchange plans. In addition, Sebelius’ HHS has labeled pregnancy as a ‘preventable disease’ requiring all health insurance providers to cover at 100% potentially abortion-inducing, cancer-causing contraception in every health insurance plan nationwide.”
“It's time for Congress to take serious the demands by ordinary citizens to de-fund Planned Parenthood once and for all. Taxpayer funds should never be used to promote or perform abortions another SFLA statement read [1], “and that's what Planned Parenthood is all about.”
SFLA also publicized a video [2] and new website detailing Planned Parenthood's monetary benefit [3] from Obamacare.
No networks attended the event but, in addition to the Media Research Center, CBN News, EWTN, Red Alert Politics, and LifeSiteNews made appearances.
This isn't the first time networks have remained absent pro-life events in D.C., failing to cover hundreds of women protesting the contraception mandate at the White House [4] and the hugely successful 40 Days for Life campaign [5].
— Katie Yoder is Staff Writer, Joe and Betty Anderlik Fellow in Culture and Media at the Media Research Center. Follow Katie Yoder on Twitter. [6]