As the topic of abortion took center stage at last week’s Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, a local pregnancy resource center (PRC) suffered an attack of vandalism similar to the many attacks seen nationwide in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade’s reversal.
Aid for Women, a PRC with multiple locations, was vandalized in the early morning hours of August 23 at its Edgewater neighborhood location in Chicago. Security camera footage captured four vandals in the act. Mary FioRito, a spokeswoman for Aid for Women, told Catholic News Agency the vandals splattered red paint and painted the words “fake clinic” and “the dead babies are in Gaza” on the center’s entrance. The vandals also cemented the facility’s door shut, causing the clinic to have to close, and cancel about a dozen appointments scheduled for Friday. As of Friday afternoon, the doors were still cemented and there was no timeline for reopening.
The attack happened as the DNC wrapped up its convention, during which multiple speakers strongly advocated for abortion. Planned Parenthood also set up a mobile facility on the streets outside the gates, offering free vasectomies, emergency contraceptives, and reportedly killing multiple preborn children through abortion.
According to FioRito, local police and the FBI are investigating the incident as a violation of the Freedom of Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act which is supposed to protect facilities like PRCs, though most of the attacks against PRCs have not resulted in any prosecutions.
PRCs have largely borne the brunt of pro-abortion attacks following the overturning of Roe — according to Catholic Vote there have been 93 attacks on PRCs and other pro-life groups since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision. Abortion advocates target these facilities because they don’t offer or refer for abortions. What they do is offer help, support, and resources to women, often empowering them to choose life for their babies.
“It’s so strange to me that pregnancy centers are somehow the collateral damage of all this anger over Roe being overturned because the pregnancy centers didn’t have anything to do with it,” FioRito said. “Pregnancy centers are largely apolitical … they are not political advocates, they are not legal advocates, they simply help women.”
