Anti-abortion activists held a rally next door to a Planned Parenthood in Jacksonville on Tuesday as part of a national movement to defund the health centers.
The Women Betrayed movement started in response to a video posted by the conservative group Center for Medical Progress.
More than 200 anti-abortion activists met in the parking lot of a Mandarin Woody’s Bar-B-Q, lining the sidewalks next to the only Planned Parenthood in Northeast Florida.
Similar rallies are happening at Planned Parenthoods across the country in reaction to a recently released video that purports to show a senior Planned Parenthood director discussing the sale of aborted fetus tissue. Anti-abortion activists say Planned Parenthood is illegally profiting from abortions.
Sen. Aaron Bean (R-Fernandina Beach) joined the rally. He says the video is appalling and thanked anti-abortion activists for their work.
“Are we going to sit by as evil continues business as usual?” Bean asked the crowd.
‘No!” they responded.
“That’s the right answer,” Bean said.
Meanwhile, it was business as usual next door at Planned Parenthood. Florida Planned Parenthood Executive Director Laura Goodhue says this sort of treatment is nothing new.
“We’ve seen these types of political attacks before,” she said, “but we’ll continue fighting because this is a very important issue that women have full access to a full range of reproductive health care. We’ll be there for our patients no matter what.”
Planned Parenthood denies the organization is profiting from sale of tissue donations. The nonprofit says the Center for Medical Progress' video is heavily edited to mislead viewers.
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