Baby socks each representing a baby killed by Planned Parenthood. Image: Students for Life of America
Students for Life of America yesterday delivered 196,543 baby socks to Capitol Hill - each one representing a baby killed by Planned Parenthood.
The student group organised the #Sockit2PP rally to put pressure on Congressional leaders to keep their promise and defund the abortion giant.
The number is over halfway to their goal of collecting 323,999 baby socks, which is how many abortions Planned Parenthood performed last year. The baby socks were sent in from students at hundreds of high school and college chapters of Students for Life and other pro-life organisations.
Changing minds
"It's a devastatingly large number," said Sen. Ben Sasse, Nebraska Republican, standing on a podium above a giant mound of baby socks outside of the Capitol. "And we need to have images like this so that people start to reflect on the magnitude of suffering that's happening out there."
The rally was lead by Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins. She said that the socks were changing minds even as they were unloaded from the truck.
"I was changing kids' minds on the street. People were just walking by, and I would say, 'Every sock represents one baby Planned Parenthood aborts,' and people's mouths were dropping...One kid came back and said, 'Can you say that again?' So it;s a huge reminder that these are babies, and that's not even all of them."
Other speakers included former Planned Parenthood director Sue Thayer, and representatives from Alliance Defending Freedom, SBA List, Americans United for Life, and American Life League.
"That could have been my baby"
One of the highlights of the rally was the testimony of 18 year old student Madeline Runkles. She brought some of the attendees of the rally to tears when she discussed her decision to choose life when she discovered that she is pregnant earlier this year.
Miss Runkles said that she briefly considered abortion upon making the discovery "because I believed all the lies that Planned Parenthood told a girl like me, that you can’t do it, you can’t accomplish your dreams, your whole life is ruined [if you have a baby]."
She said that, although Planned Parenthood depicts itself as a champion of women's rights, "I can't think of anything less empowering than telling a woman she can't do it."
"And I look at all these socks, and that could have been my baby," she said. "But I choose to let my baby wear these socks.
"I know it's going to be hard to accomplish my dreams, but I get to have a little guy next to me, and we get to do it together."
On Wednesday volunteers delivered 88,000 socks to members of Congress — the number of abortions Planned Parenthood has performed during the first 100 days of the new administration.
Delivering to representative Paul Ryan's office. Image: Students for Life of America
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