From Kathryn Jean Lopez in National Review:
“God killed his kid, why can’t I kill mine?” A woman in a white bathing suit, stuffed to simulate pregnancy, has a few baby dolls attached — they were the babies she was aborting, she told us. “Help me abort my babies.” After dancing and spinning on the grounds outside the church, she later complained, “My aborted babies are all wet.” (It was raining.)
This was the scene outside Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Pro-life Catholics were gathered for Mass and a Rosary procession to the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic on the next block. This has been done for 14 years on the first Saturday of every month (except for some of the 2020 shutdown). This morning, however, we did not process to the sidewalk across from the clinic, because the police advised us not to, saying they couldn’t be sure of our protection. I can confirm there were a lot of new faces, many of these were not the regular crowd protesting prayer. The gal in the bathing suit certainly seemed to be looking for a fight, imploring the priest, Fr. Fidelis Moscinski, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal — who she repeatedly referred to as “b**ch” — to come out and face her.
There was a collective cheer when one of the people protesting prayer announced that they had successfully kept us from going to Planned Parenthood. What they didn’t appreciate is that the prayer was just as intense inside the church.
Read on and see video of the protest.
From The New York Times:
About a dozen members of the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral gathered outside the church and were met by around 75 abortion rights demonstrators.
On the first Saturday of the month, the church members usually walk in an organized procession to a Planned Parenthood clinic a couple of blocks away. But this week, out of safety concerns, some of the members instead decided to station themselves outside the church and behind a fence that separated the church from the street. There, they stood in the rain, singing hymns and praying over their rosaries.
On the other side of the fence, a number of the abortion rights supporters shouted and sang, “Thank God for Abortion.” Some also hung up a green, black and white sign that said, “Anti-Abortion Laws Kill Us.”
One of the protesters, Payal Patel, a resident of Harlem who provides family medicine services, abortions and abortion pills across the city, said that people in New York City were lucky because abortion would remain legal even if Roe were overturned. But she said it was important to teach future generations “that abortion is health care.”
The Rev. Brian A. Graebe, who has been the pastor of the church for the past three years, said he saw the leaked draft of the Supreme Court ruling as a sign of hope.
“We’ve certainly had more than our share of setbacks over the past 50 years on this issue, but it’s something that would be a wonderful step forward for our society,” he said.
