On Saturday, Aug. 22 a peaceful protest is scheduled in front of the local Planned Parenthood abortion facility, 470 Pleasant St., Worcester, from 9-11 a.m. The event is part of a national day of protest which will take place in more than 100 cities across the United States, according to organizer Sandra A. Kucharski. Bishop McManus is scheduled to pray the rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet between 10-11 a.m. Other guest speakers include Rod Murphy of Problem Pregnancy; Anne Fox from Massachusetts Citizens for Life and Catherine Adair, a former Planned Parenthood worker, and Lee Crowley from 40 Days for Life,Worcester. The national protest, put together by a coalition of more than 50 pro-life organizations, including 40 Days for Life, Pro-Life Action League, Created Equal and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, is in response to the scandal that has erupted in recent weeks due to undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress. In the videos, which can be seen at www.centerformedicalprogress.org/cmp/investigative-footage, Planned Parenthood executives are seen talking about how much money they would be paid for aborted baby body parts and, in some cases, intact fetuses. Some videos show Planned Parenthood techs rummaging through the dismembered pieces of unborn children fresh from abortion procedures, to identify body parts that can be used by research companies. “The most recent revelations about Planned Parenthood’s willingness to traffic in fetal tissue from abortions, and to alter abortion methods not for any reason related to women’s health but to obtain more ‘intact’ organs, is the latest demonstration of a callousness toward women and their unborn children that is shocking to many Americans,” said Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities. “Watching these videos fills me with such a visceral disgust,” said Ms. Kucharski, a longtime pro-life activist. “First they convince a woman it’s not a baby - it’s just a blob of cells, and then they kill the baby and sell the body parts for profit!” she observed. Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in America, receives more than $500 million yearly in government funds – including state payments – more than one-third of its annual $1.3 billion in revenue. It has only recently come to light that the abortion giant may be involved in the illegal and unethical sale of aborted baby body parts. In the entire history of legalized abortion, Planned Parenthood has never faced such media scrutiny and public criticism of its abortion practice and the possibility of losing millions of dollars in federal funding. Mark Harrington of Created Equal noted, “Each community with a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic or satellite clinic needs to take action against the killing of babies and the trafficking of their aborted baby parts. It’s past time for stopping Planned Parenthood once and for all!” Eric Scheidler of Pro-Life Action League added, “These videos are exposing the American people to the truth about Planned Parenthood and the truth about abortion. How can you deny the humanity of a tiny person whose body parts are being harvested for medical use?” Priests for Life announced Aug. 4 that a coalition of religious and pro-life groups plan to lead a “Week of Prayer to End the Evils of Planned Parenthood” Aug. 22-29. Several suggested prayers for the week have been posted at www.PrayerCampaign.org. “It has long been troubling to many Americans that the nation’s largest abortion network, performing over a third of all abortions, receives over half a billion taxpayer dollars a year,” Cardinal O’Malley said. “This concern has rightly grown in recent years,” he wrote in a letter to senators urging them to support a measure that would defund Planned Parenthood and its affiliates