MANSFIELD, Ohio — A crowd of nearly 100 pro-life supporters gathered Saturday morning for a prayer vigil in the parking lot next to Mansfield’s Planned Parenthood on Park Avenue West.
Passers-by honked their support as many of those gathered held signs with pro-life messages along Park Avenue West.
Event organizer Terry Leedy said the vigil was part of a nationwide movement to call for the defunding of Planned Parenthood, with gatherings taking place in more than 300 cities across the country.
“It came together spontaneously in the last three weeks or so,” Leedy said. “A number of pro-life organizations around the country put out on the Internet that they were trying to organize some prayer vigils and protests at certain locations and it exploded. It went from, well maybe we can do 100, then they said maybe we can do 200 and in the last week it went to 300 and climbing.”
Leedy said the S.A.V.E. A Child vigil, planned by the St. Peter’s Respect Life committee, was designed to raise awareness about the role of Planned Parenthood in selling fetal tissue from aborted fetuses.
“Our vision today is prayerfulness, a positive approach to spreading the message and the truth, and then purposeful action after we leave here today,” Leedy said.
According to Leedy, the acronym S.A.V.E. is designed to help pro-life supporters know how they can best take action.
– S – Stop all government funding of Planned Parenthood
– A – Abortion funding from corporations must be ended by boycott
– V – Volunteer your time, talent and treasure to make a difference
– E – Educate family, friends and culture regarding life and family
Videos came to light in recent weeks purportedly showing Planned Parenthood employees discussing the sale of fetal tissue for profit.
“The intent is to leverage that more broad awareness in the public sphere into some action,” Leedy said.
Members of Congress have called for an investigation into Planned Parenthood in response to these videos, which have been released by the Center for Medical Progress, a group that opposes abortion.
Earlier this month, a procedural vote in the Senate to cut all federal funding from the organization failed.
Planned Parenthood executives have said the organization has not done anything illegal, arguing the videos were unfairly edited to distort the truth. It is legal for companies to pay for the processing and transportation costs of donating fetal tissue, but the videos allegedly show officials trying to make a larger profit.
Jennifer Critcher, who works at a pregnancy crisis center in Mount Vernon, said she attended Saturday’s rally because it’s an issue that’s very close to her heart.
“I have a real passion for life and protecting the life of these precious little babies,” Critcher said.
During the vigil, supporters came together for group prayers and also heard from several speakers, including several whose lives had been touched by abortion.
The vigil ended with the National 54 Day Rosary Novena using the Bishop’s Traveling Rosary. The rosary is traveling through the 19 counties of the Toledo Diocese, stopping at a different school each day.
