Protest sparks dueling rallies
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Teah Towling
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PLATTSBURGH — Nancy Belzile had two abortions by the time she was 26.
The Willsboro resident, now 60, still regrets those decisions.
“My pregnancies did not just go away because of abortion,” she said. “It made me the mother of two dead babies.”
Belzile organized the pro-life rally last Saturday, one of hundreds held nationwide as part of a coordinated effort by the #ProtestPP Coalition — a loosely-organized group that aims to strip the healthcare provider of federal funding.
Planned Parenthood receives more than $500 million a year from the federal government, about 75 percent from Medicaid. That’s about 43 percent of its revenue stream.
Anti-abortion protestors say by eliminating this source of revenue and allocating it toward health centers that do not perform abortions, both government officials and residents, like Patricia LaDuke of Plattsburgh, are hoping to see the number of abortions decrease.
“The government shouldn’t have to pay for people to get abortions,” she said. “And that’s all that Planned Parenthood does.”
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