The awkwardness and embarrassment of this year’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago is thankfully behind us at last, following one of the most undemocratic exercises in “democracy” imaginable. But the event is still generating headlines as the city moves to pick up the pieces. The protests/riots didn’t wind up being nearly as bad as many had anticipated, but the pro-Hamas crowd still showed up to shatter the Democrats’ illusion of a new dawn of unity in their party. It wasn’t just the pro-Hamas people causing trouble, however. Following the closing ceremonies, someone vandalized a Catholic pregnancy center named “Aid for Women” in a fairly horrible fashion. Graffiti was applied to the windows making it appear as if the facility was covered in blood. There was very little in the way of a police presence in the pregnancy center’s neighborhood at the time because most of the Chicago PD was tied up at the convention center. Fortunately, the vandals were caught in the act by the center’s security cameras. (Catholic News Agency)
A Catholic pregnancy center in Chicago called “Aid for Women” was vandalized in the early morning hours after the closing of the Democratic National Convention.
No one was present at the center at the time of the incident. Police have been contacted and are investigating the incident as a violation of the Freedom of Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, according to Mary FioRito, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a spokesperson for Aid for Women.
Aid for Women is a non-profit which according to its website was “founded on the faith and teachings of the Catholic Church.”
You can see a picture of the vandalism at the CNA website linked above. The vandals wrote “fake clinic” in red paint, followed by a message claiming, “The dead babies are in Gaza.” Evil? Yes. A message supporting infanticide? Certainly. But it was also rather stupid if you ask me. Did these vandals even understand what the purpose of a pregnancy center is? Why would they leave a message about “dead babies?” The entire purpose of these pregnancy centers to help mothers in distress bring their babies safely into the world and ensure their earliest needs are met.
The damage wasn’t limited to the graffiti. The vandals also applied liquid cement to the locks on the doors, leaving them unable to be opened. It would be several days before the doors could be repaired and made operational again. Dozens of women had to either have their appointments canceled or be redirected to one of the other pregnancy centers that Aid for Women operates in the city. As the director of the center later said, the only people that these attackers were hurting were the economically challenged women who were seeking help with their pregnancies.
As noted above, the center had security cameras installed. The video of the four attackers doing their dirty work has been turned over to the police. If apprehended, they could be charged with violations of the Freedom of Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. There would be a sort of ironic justice in all of this if some liberal vandals attacking a pregnancy center wound up being charged under a law originally intended to keep people from blocking access to abortion clinics. Unfortunately, no arrests were made in the immediate aftermath of the attack and no suspects were identified by the police. The challenge for law enforcement may be complicated by the time, date, and location of the incident. The vandals may very well have been from another part of the country and they were only in town for the convention. Time will tell.
If this leaves the Democrats with a figurative black eye after their big show in Chicago, they have only themselves to blame. These are the sort of people their party attracts these days. They insist on abortion-on-demand everywhere and they oppose crisis pregnancy centers even when they apparently don’t even know what goes on in such clinics. They preach the financial isolation of Israel and then have the nerve to act surprised when a bunch of liberal antisemites show up and begin attacking Jews. They seem to have forgotten one of the older adages in American politics and life in general. Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.
