Prairie State Wire

As disgusted as she was to hear the news that students at an Oak Park middle school will be raising funds for Planned Parenthood as part of an eighth-grade school project, Mary Kate Knorr admits she's not entirely surprised either.

“And I really wouldn’t be surprised to see more of this kind of thing,” the executive director of Illinois Right to Life Action told Prairie State Wire. “They’re using children who don’t understand the issues, exploiting the innocent to raise funds for an organization that already gets millions in funding and earns millions more from performing abortions.”

At Julian Middle School, students enrolled in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program held a fundraiser for the organization earlier this month as part of their community service project. Parents were informed about the project in a recent newsletter in which school administrators explained their rationale.

Mary Kate Knorr, executive director of Illinois Right to Life Action

“A central part of being an IB student is learning to look at the world through multiple perspectives and appreciate all human experiences similar and different from your own," the newsletter stated. "This type of learning culminates with the 8th Grade IB Community Project.”

School officials said they would be highlighting 11 different programs and fundraising for each of them, including Connections for Abused Women and Their Children, and Best Friends Animal Society.

Knorr said she senses a sad and disturbing trend to it all.

“You see more people being fooled to step up to support Planned Parenthood as some sort of sacrificial organization when it’s really just an abortion mill,” she said. “The organization has pulled the wool over the eyes of too many people in terms of who they really are and what they stand for.”