Post-abortive woman calls for defunding Planned Parenthood

WASHINGTON — Toni McFadden was only a senior in high school when she walked through the doors of what she describes as a “death facility.” A Planned Parenthood center filled her with the “false hope” that the abortion would give her “already unstable relationship a fighting chance.”

The country’s largest abortion provider gave the student abortion drugs, assuring her that any bleeding would be just like “a heavy period.” But the drugs would later cause McFadden to suffer from severe hemorrhage while she was at school. 

“Abortion doesn’t bring healing; it leaves wounds and lifelong regret,” McFadden said during a speech on Capitol Hill this week, where she joined hundreds of pro-life advocates and Christian leaders in calling on Congress to freeze the flow of federal tax dollars to the abortion industry.

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Looking back many years later, she said she would “give [her] baby life without hesitation” if she could go back and do it all over again. 

“No woman should have to walk through what I walked through, believing the lies and being left to suffer alone. Abortion only reaps one thing: death,” she said. 

“So today, I stand not just for myself, but for every woman who has been deceived, for every child who has never been given a chance,” she declared. “We must stop funding lies. We must stop funding the pain. We must stop funding death. From the first heartbeat to the final breath, every life holds value. Every soul deserves a chance. Life is a gift worth defending.”

McFadden, an author and founder of the program Relationships Matter, was one of over 300 pro-life advocates from 39 states gathered on Thursday to urge action from Congress during the budget reconciliation process, calling on lawmakers to defund “Big Abortion” and Planned Parenthood, the country’s largest abortion provider. 

McFadden, an African American pro-life advocate who travels the country to share her story and speak about the importance of healthy relationships, told The Christian Post that Planned Parenthood is skilled at deception, but she believes young people and minority women are “waking up.” 

“We’re not believing the lies,” the pro-life advocate said. “We’re starting to understand how they claim to prop up low-income minority women, but we’re starting to educate ourselves on how Planned Parenthood started and how we’re targeted.” 

“I think we’re fed up with the lies,” she added. “We’re not falling for it anymore, and people don’t want their money going to them.”

According to Planned Parenthood’s 2022-2023 annual report, the organization performed over 390,000 abortions while receiving nearly $700 million in federal funding. Pro-life advocates noted that the 2022-2023 report was consistent with previous tallies that reported a decline in most of Planned Parenthood’s other services while abortions increased. 

Earlier this year, The New York Times also reported on botched abortions and unsanitary conditions at Planned Parenthood facilities throughout the country, shining a light on the activities pro-lifers have raised concerns about for decades. 

During her speech on Thursday, McFadden accused Planned Parenthood of exploiting women, especially minorities, and using them for financial gain. She asserted that this is one of many reasons why the abortion vendor must be defunded. 

Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment.

Students for Life of America, one of the largest pro-life campus organizations, plans to hold more than 100 events in 33 states within the next few days, according to its president, Kristan Hawkins. 

According to Hawkins, the purpose of the rallies is to “tell President Trump and our legislative players here on Capitol Hill, in our state capitals, that it’s very clear what they must do next. Defund your political enemies, invest in lifesaving, life-affirming medical care.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the national pro-life grassroots organization Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, declared during her speech that the pro-life movement is “completely unified” in its first priority, which she said is defunding abortion providers in the reconciliation bill. 

Although most legislation requires 60 votes to pass the U.S. Senate, a reconciliation bill can clear the Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes. Since Republicans currently control the House of Representatives and Senate, passing the bill could be possible. 

Dannenfelser told CP in an interview that she believes that now is the time for the pro-life movement to pressure for the defunding of Planned Parenthood.

“We have a new House, Senate and president,” Dannenfelser said. “We have at least until midterms to make this happen. We also have the undercurrent of [the U.S. Supreme Court’s] Dobbs [decision], and there’s a bigger, younger, more motivated pro-life movement now.”

The press conference coincides with a week of action from Christian and pro-life leaders to stop taxpayer dollars from funding Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry. 

Earlier this week, 150 pro-life organizations from all 50 states sent a letter to members of Congress, urging them to cut funding for “big abortion” in the upcoming reconciliation bill. One of the groups that signed the letter, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, arranged for 16 pastors to meet with congressional leaders this week. 

The visiting pastors hand-delivered 10,000 signatures for the ERLC’s campaign to defund Planned Parenthood, as Baptist Press reported Friday. The group held meetings with various political leaders, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. 

“I wish that every Southern Baptist could have been with us in Washington this week,” Pastor Gevan Spinney of First Baptist Church in Haughton, Louisiana, told Baptist Press.

“These men and other conservative Christians are helping to navigate the ship through some tumultuous waters,” the pastor said about the legislative leaders that the group met. “I left feeling a strong burden to pray for our fellow Christians who are in that fight.”