Sioux Center, Iowa — While it wasn’t designed as a campaign stop, the Family Leader’s Northwest Iowa Regional Summit in Sioux Center Tuesday evening featured speeches from a pair of Republican presidential hopefuls. The summit centered around pro-life issues, and defunding Planned Parenthood.
Louisiana Governor and presidential candidate Bobby Jindal told the crowd that as soon as the infamous Planned Parenthood videos came to light, he cut off all funding for the organization in his state. Jindal said that Planned Parenthood then organized a protest, sending picketers to the Louisiana Governor’s Mansion as, he noted, is their First Amendment right. Jindal said that, as a good host, he decided he should provide entertainment for his guests, and had a large screen set up on the lawn, where the recently released Planned Parenthood videos were shown in an endless loop.
Jindal was joined at the Forum by former Senator and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, who also spoke about Planned Parenthood, and pro-life ligislation that he had passed while in the Senate. He told the audience that he was tired of Republicans in Washington playing defense instead of going on the offense on issues their constituents care about, such as abortion.
Family Leader President Bob Vander Plaats told the crowd that, while putting the right person in the White House next year is important, the more important thing that needs to happen in the United States is a spiritual revival, beginning in the home. As for the political, he encouraged people to call Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and urge him to terminate Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider, to terminate the state’s Title X contract with Planned Parenthood, meet with their legislators to urge them to lobby Branstad for defunding, and ask their friends and relatives to do the same.
Tuesday night’s Family Leader Northwest Iowa Regional Summit, which drew a large crowd, was held at Dordt College in Sioux Center.
