A pro-life pregnancy resource center was vandalized in Chicago shortly after the Democratic National Convention (DNC).
The center, Aid for Women, was vandalized in the early morning hours after the DNC, according to a report from Catholic News Agency (CNA).
Reportedly, the nonprofit organization operates five pregnancy centers and two maternity homes in the Chicago area. The group works with the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago to offer ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, Abortion Pill Reversal (APR), and many other services for mothers who are experiencing unplanned pregnancies.
“For the past 25 years, it’s been my privilege to be a volunteer and board member at Aid for Women, a nonprofit that runs maternity homes and pregnancy services throughout Illinois,” pro-life advocate Mary FioRito wrote on X last week. “Last night, after the closing of the DNC, vandals attacked one of AFW’s Chicago locations.”
The DNC opened with free abortions and closed with the vandalization of a pregnancy help center. https://t.co/adtCUffIQu
— Live Action (@LiveAction) August 26, 2024
“If the goon squad think they're hurting pro-lifers - the ONLY people they are hurting are women, mostly working class or poor, who are already facing immense hurdles in their lives,” she added.
In an interview with CNA, FioRito said that she’s been a volunteer at Aid for Women for over 20 years (via CNA):
According to FioRito, four vandals splattered red paint and painted the words “fake clinic” and “the dead babies are in Gaza” on the center’s entrance. FioRito said the vandals also cemented the center’s doors shut, forcing staff to cancel all appointments on Friday — which she said were with about a dozen women.
As of Friday afternoon, the center’s doors were still cemented shut and there is no timeline on when it will be able to reopen. FioRito said this means the Aid for Women pregnancy center may have to cancel its appointments or ask women to visit another location on Saturday, which FioRito said is their busiest day.
In the interview, FioRito said that the women who seek out services at Aid for Women are “already facing so many obstacles” in their lives.
“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,” she said. “Pregnancy centers are largely apolitical … they are not political advocates, they are not legal advocates, they simply help women,” she explained.
“Many of the women we serve are not women of means,” she said. “Pregnancy is hard enough. You don’t need something like this layered on top of it, making your life even harder.”
“If the people who did this were intending to hurt the pro-life movement or get back at the pro-life movement for Dobbs, all they’re really hurting is poor women when they do something like this,” FioRito said.
At the DNC, abortion behemoth Planned Parenthood offered free medication abortions and vasectomies at a pop-up clinic outside the venue, as Townhall reported.
Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America, wrote on X that at least 25 babies were aborted at the DNC.