According to Fox News and Catholic News Agency (CNA), a pro-life pregnancy center in Florida was recently the target of a “ritualistic attack.” On May 10, staff of the Catholic-affiliated JMJ Pregnancy Center in Orlando discovered the carcasses of three animals – a decapitated chicken, drained of blood; a lamb; and “what appears to be a pheasant” – on the center’s lawn in what executive director Bob Perron described as a “ritualistic scene.”
The attack occurred sometime between 3:30 and 5 p.m. Doorbell camera footage shows a suspect spending 45 minutes walking around the front of the clinic as well as going into the bushes where the carcasses were later found. According to Fox News, “It is unclear if the animals were mutilated at the scene of the vandalism or dumped after being mutilated elsewhere.”
A police officer came to make a report, after which, the carcasses were removed by animal control. Perron said that Bishop John Noonan of the Diocese of Orlando sent a priest to bless the building the morning after the carcasses were discovered.
“We think there was probably some kind of ritual that was involved,” Perron told CNA. He noted that no patients saw the carcasses, and speculated that the center was targeted “because we do not support or refer for abortions, which we know hurts women and their families.”
Perron also called on “our local, state, and federal government to act immediately to find the perpetrator(s) of this horrific, ritualistic attack on our pregnancy center and bring to justice those who have caused this desecration.”
According to CNA, there have been over 60 attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers since May of 2022, the month the draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked. Only six arrests have been made thus far, compared to 26 arrests of pro-life activists in 2022 alone.
“Nationally, the lack of arrests and charges against people who have targeted pregnancy centers, not only in our state, but across the country, is staggering and unnerving,” Perron told Fox News. “Why are centers who help women, many of them low-income and minority, not being protected against pro-abortion extremists?”
