According to Catholic News Agency, federal FACE Act (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act) charges have been filed against a transgender-identifying activist for allegedly vandalizing a pro-life pregnancy center in April.
The FACE Act prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.” It applies to abortion facilities as well as to pregnancy resource centers.
Activist Whitney Durant — who goes by the name Soren Monroe — is a 20-year-old biologically female college student who identifies as male, and attends Bowling Green University. Monroe/Durant allegedly vandalized Bowling Green Pregnancy Center, also known as HerChoice, with spray paint on April 15. On the building were spraypainted the words, “Liars,” “Fake clinic,” “Jane’s Revenge,” “Fund abortion,” and “Abort God.”
The pro-life center is known for helping women to “make an empowered decision for your unplanned pregnancy.”
“Durant intentionally damaged the property of HerChoice, a pregnancy care center located in Bowling Green, Ohio, by defacing the clinic’s building with spray paint because the clinic provides reproductive health services,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Surveillance footage showed the person believed to be Monroe/Durant wearing a surgical mask and a hat while vandalizing the facility at 3:26 a.m. Monroe/Durant pleaded not guilty to the charges on July 7 and has been released on a $10,000 bond but faces up to one year in prison.
This is allegedly not the first time Monroe/Durant has targeted a pro-life organization.
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According to The Washington Stand, the name “Soren Monroe” is listed as the contact for the Bowing Green Student Rights Union, a “leftist student activism organization that will be taking direct action to make change…” Monroe/Durant is said to have harassed Falcons for Life, the Bowling Green University affiliate of Students for Life, screaming, “You are promoting violence by forcing people to stay pregnant!” Monroe/Durant also called the pro-life students “racists,” “fascists” and “dumb f***!”
“Through in-person intimidation — by screaming obscenities and getting in the Falcons for Life faces — as well as online cyberbullying and defamation, [Durant] and the radical group she leads on campus have made it hard to be pro-life. They’re not giving up yet, though. The Falcons for Life are currently getting help from SFLA’s legal counsel over this matter and have sent a demand letter to the school administration,” Students for Life of America wrote.
Since the draft opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked in May of 2022, there have been dozens of attacks (with 135 just between May and September of 2022) against pro-life organizations. FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Homeland Security Committee in November that 70% of abortion-related violence and threats since then have been perpetrated against pro-life groups.
