Anti-abortion groups are planning a coordinated, nationwide protest in front of Planned Parenthood clinics later in August, in an effort to ramp up pressure on the group for its involvement in obtaining aborted fetal tissue.

Around 40 groups have agreed to participate so far, including national organizations such as March for Life, the Family Research Council and Americans United for Life, along with smaller regional and state activist groups.

Their plan is to organize protests by abortion opponents outside local Planned Parenthood affiliate clinics around the country from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22. Three groups organizing the event will provide banners that say "Planned Parenthood sells baby parts" followed by the hashtag #PPSellsBabyParts.

"[Planned Parenthood] sites is where the killing and organ harvesting is actually occurring (especially the mega-centers)," wrote Created Equal President Mark Harrington and Pro-Life Action League Executive Director Eric Scheidler in an email sent Tuesday to anti-abortion groups.

"A presence at the neighborhood Planned Parenthoods makes this a local issue, not just a remote national story, and makes it more relevant to the local community," he wrote.

Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and Created Equal are also helping organize the protest. The three groups have created a website, protestpp.com, where participants can view the roughly 650 Planned Parenthood clinic locations and where protests will take place.

The effort was sparked by four undercover videos obtained and edited by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress showing top Planned Parenthood officials discussing how some doctors obtain fetal organs during abortions in order to provide them to biomedical companies for research purposes.

The footage has also prompted congressional Republicans to launch investigations into the group, which says it has done nothing illegal. It is legal to receive compensation for the overhead costs of donating aborted fetal tissue, but in the videos some officials appear to be haggling over the price, fueling charges that they have illegally profited from it.

A network of college activists called Students for Life of America coordinated rallies against Planned Parenthood in around 60 cities on Tuesday. But the protests in August will be focused more on clinics themselves, abortion opponents say.

"It's going to be big," said Arina Grossu, director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council. "The purpose is to stand in front of the local Planned Parenthood facilities in their communities and pray, hold a press conference and really let the local community know what Planned Parenthood is about."

Planned Parenthood says about 3 percent of its medical services are comprised of abortions, and about 10 percent of its patients have an abortion. Federal law prohibits the group from using taxpayer dollars for abortions, yet Republicans want to block all federal funds from Planned Parenthood clinics and instead distribute them to women's health clinics that don't offer abortion services.