Indiana State Representative, Peggy Mayfield, R-Martinsville, speaks to a group of pro-life activists outside the Planned Parenthood building in Bloomington. Jeremy Hogan | Herald-Times
More than 100 protesters gathered outside the Bloomington Planned Parenthood clinic Tuesday afternoon to voice concerns about local and national funding of the reproductive health organization.
Protesters held signs reading, “Hey City and County Councils, Stop Murdering Babies with Our Taxes,” “Defund Planned Parenthood Now” and “No Tax $ for Baby Butchers.” Monica Siefker, one of the protest organizers, said the gathering was one of dozens held across the nation on the same date by Students for Life of America, an anti-abortion youth organization.
“We can’t individually decide when a person is a person,” Siefker said. “We were all once embryos.”
Calls for the defunding of Planned Parenthood have come after the release of videos by anti-abortion nonprofit organization the Center for Medical Progress. The videos detail secretly taped discussions between Planned Parenthood executives and individuals posing as buyers for a human biologics company.
The Center for Medical Progress maintains that Planned Parenthood alters abortion procedures in order to remove intact body parts of aborted fetuses such as hearts and livers for sale to research companies. Planned Parenthood has called these allegations misleading. Legally, woman who undergo abortions can donate aborted fetal tissue for scientific research. This donation is voluntarily, and results in no profit to the woman or Planned Parenthood, the organization says.
“We are here for our patients, no matter what,” Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky said in a statement via email. “For the women, men and young people we serve, the care we provide isn’t about politics — it’s about their well-being, and we remain focused on ensuring our patients are able to access the health care we provide in a safe and caring environment.”
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