Concerned Women for America of Iowa was given a two-hour notice that Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, with 100 of their volunteers, were headed to the Iowa State Capitol. State Director Tamara Scott put out a plea for help on Facebook and made a quick phone call to our trusted and prompt CWA National Field Department in Washington, D.C. We asked what we could have our CWA volunteers hand out at the Capitol that would stop legislators from supporting more funding for Planned Parenthood. They directed us to a recent CWA blog post “Four Reasons to Defund Planned Parenthood-Now!” by Brenda Zurita, Research Fellow for the Beverly LaHaye Institute (BLI), a think tank for CWA. The Field Department then laid out the blog into an informative handout to give to our legislators.
Off to the Capitol we went with a stack of handouts and fervently praying as we entered the building. We were thanking God that we were given the heads up about Planned Parenthood and desperately asked Him to use us to break through the lies of the enemy being propagated in our state Capitol. Death was being promoted, and we were not going to stand for it.
The blog was absolutely what we needed to go head to head with Planned Parenthood. It was a blessing to offer legislators another view to counter Planned Parenthood and to embolden those legislators with a pro-life stance. For the pro-life legislators, a friendly faces in the midst of a blitz like this by Planned Parenthood offered much needed support. You could see their shoulders visibly drop as they relaxed when they saw us coming. We often forget the pressure under which they operate.
We were delighted to have two volunteers join us as we lobbied nine different legislators. We talked with seven Republicans and two Democrats; only one of the nine would not stand with us in defunding Planned Parenthood. The House of Representatives and the Senate were heading into floor debate so we ran out of time, but we were able to distribute Zurita’s piece into all 50 Senate mailboxes. We hope to hear back today that we have gotten permission to distribute to the 100 House Representatives.
To God be the glory! His timing is perfect.