Violence and vandalism against pro-life crisis pregnancy centres erupted last week, as the country anxiously awaits the US Supreme Court’s decision that is expected to overturn the 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to procure an abortion.
Pro-life pregnancy centers have long been denounced by abortion rights activists because they provide many of the same services as Planned Parenthood clinics – counseling, medical check-ups, and social services – but do not perform abortions.
The worst violence was in Buffalo, New York where a clinic run by CompassCare was badly damaged when it was engulfed by flames in the middle of the night. Police said they believe it was arson. A militant abortion rights’ group “Jane’s Revenge” claimed credit for the attack, and the words “Jane was here” were spray painted on the building.
“Ironically, New York’s governor not only ignored the violence but instead earmarked $35 million in taxpayer funds to increase security at abortion clinics,” CompassCare said in a statement. “Adding insult to injury the New York legislature passed a bill investigating pro-life pregnancy centers precisely because they do not perform abortions.”
In Alaska, Washington State, and Wisconsin, crisis pregnancy centres were vandalised. In Alaska, the glass in a door to a pregnancy center was broken, nails were placed upwards in a crack in the driveway’s cement, and pro-abortion graffiti was painted on the walls. A spokesman for the clinic said he believed the vandalism was meant to intimidate them. Greg Monrad said: “It failed. It was pretty unanimous from the volunteers and staff here, that this is not going to change how we do business here one bit at all. We may pray a little more than we already pray.”
Outside Washington, DC, police arrested an armed man from California who apparently intended to murder Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Catholic who is expected to join the conservative majority on the court in overturning the 1973 ruling. Details are unclear, and the man called police to report he was outside Kavanaugh’s home, raising questions about his actual intent.
In Colorado, the state’s Catholic bishops published a letter to Catholic legislators who supported a law that made abortion widely available in the state, urging them to refrain from taking Holy Communion. The bishops stopped short of the action taken by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, telling he she would be denied communion.
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