One pro-life group is sending 324K socks to Congress — here's why

A pro-life group is planning to deliver more than 320,000 baby socks to Congress in an effort to protest taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.

According to Planned Parenthood’s 2014-15 annual report, the organization performed 323,999 abortions in 2014. So the pro-life group, Students for Life of America, will deliver one sock for each abortion performed by Planned Parenthood to lawmakers.

The group’s #Sockit2PP campaign will collect 323,999 baby socks and present them to Congress.

Kristin Hawkins, president of Students for Life, said in a statement that “the idea was inspired by a tiny baby sock pinned to the backpack of a pro-life student at one of our college groups, and we knew this could easily become a national rallying cry.”

“It’s a great visual and an even better conversation-starter,” Hawkins said. “Planned Parenthood’s time is up, and we are going to pull out all the stops to make sure that they are defunded of the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars they get every single year.”

Kaylin Haines, a sophomore at Fort Hays State University in Kansas, was the inspiration for the campaign, said a spokesperson for Students for Life.

“On our college campus, we were trying to find a way to spark more conversations about the pro-life generation and abortion beyond the classroom, so we started to pin baby socks to our bags as a way to show what we stand for and in solidarity with those who won’t ever get the chance to have life because of Planned Parenthood,” Haines said in a statement. “It’s been a huge success, and we are thrilled to participate in this project with Students for Life of America.”

Hawkins said “this generation, millennials, are passionate about helping moms in unplanned pregnancies and making sure they have all the resources they need so they never feel like they have to choose between the life they’ve always dreamed of and the life of their child.”

“Millennials grew up with the technology to see life in a womb for what it is: life," she said. "They see beyond Planned Parenthood’s deceitful façade of ‘women’s health care’ and they are excited to sock it to PP and defund the abortion giant.”

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, is attempting to defend its federal funds after Republican lawmakers indicated they will seek to redirect funds granted to Planned Parenthood to community health centers.

The organization recently rejected a Trump administration funding proposal that would have allowed them to continue receiving federal funds if they ceased to perform abortions, calling the deal “obscene and insulting.”