Anti-Israel protesters defaced a pro-life pregnancy resource center in Chicago late Thursday night after the close of the Democratic National Convention.
Vandals painted “Fake clinic” and “The real dead babies are in Gaza” in red spray paint on the entrance to the center, and put cement in the locks so employees couldn’t get into the building and see clients, Mary FioRito, an Aid for Women volunteer and advisory board member, told The Daily Signal.
The attack, which took place the final night of the Democratic convention in Chicago, comes after Planned Parenthood offered free abortions and vasectomies to attendees outside the stadium. At least 25 unborn babies were reportedly killed in the mobile abortion truck.
There have been at least 92 attacks against pregnancy resource centers, not including this one, since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, according to CatholicVote’s tracker.
A security camera spotted four vandals at 3 a.m. CST this morning defacing the clinic. Aid for Women is unsure when it will be able to see clients again, as employees can’t get into the building.
“This is a further demonstration of the radical and extreme position of the Democratic activists who are not content merely to debate the question of abortion,” CatholicVote President Brian Burch told The Daily Signal, “or are willing to use destruction and violence.”
Aid for Women offers free ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, abortion pill reversals, diapers, baby bottles, and pregnancy options counseling to women who have unplanned pregnancies. It also operates two maternity homes.
“This is a direct attack on vulnerable women who need help,” Burch said.
Aid for Women reported the incident to the FBI as a possible FACE Act violation, FioRito said.
“The FBI neither confirms nor denies an investigation per longstanding DOJ policy, and has no further comment,” the National Press Operations Unit of the FBI told The Daily Signal.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE, Act prohibits use of force, obstruction, or property damage intended to interfere with “reproductive health care services.” Though it theoretically protects houses of worship and pro-life pregnancy resource centers as well as abortion clinics, the Biden administration’s Justice Department has largely used the FACE Act to prosecute pro-life activists.
“This is a pattern of violence that the Department of Justice has continued to ignore and instead has focused on hunting down pro life advocates,” Burch said.
Pregnancy centers are apolitical and exist to help women in desperate situations, FioRito said.
Aid for Women is “completely service oriented,” she said, adding that thousands of unborn babies have been saved through the center’s work.
“They are largely staffed by by volunteers,” FioRito said, “and probably about 90% of the people who volunteer work at pregnancy centers are women. It is women helping other women.”
Pregnancy centers have become “collateral damage in the abortion debate,” according to FioRito.
“Abortion is almost always a very permanent solution to a very temporary problem,” FioRito said. “What we try to do at aid for women is, when you are faced with a crisis pregnancy, we eliminate the crisis. We don’t eliminate the child.”