Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. / Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
New York City, N.Y., Jul 3, 2022 / 05:56 am (CNA).
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a New York City Planned Parenthood abortion clinic Saturday, setting off a tense, hours’ long confrontation in Lower Manhattan.
With NYPD officers slowly pushing against the crowd, the marchers eventually reached the clinic. There were no immediate reports of arrests.
A counter-demonstration organized by NYC for Abortion Rights began Saturday morning outside the Basilica of Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Mulberry Street, where a monthly Witness for Life Mass is held at 8 a.m. on the first Saturday of the month. The Mass is followed by the recitation of the Rosary outside the nearby Planned Parenthood clinic, then benediction back at the basilica before a social with the Sisters of Life.
On Saturday, counter-demonstrators tried to stop participants from leaving the basilica, though marchers managed to slip out a back door, AMNY reported.
The marchers’ path to the clinic was blocked by pro-abortion protesters who pushed back against police trying to clear the way.
Kathryn Jean Lopez, senior fellow at the National Review Institute and an editor-at-large of National Review, tweeted from the scene that it took marchers more than an hour to reach the clinic, which is just a block from the basilica. Marchers were “praying all the way,” she said.
Outside the basilica, demonstrators chanted, “Thank God for abortion,” and “F—- the Church,” among other slogans.
The demonstration comes a little over a week since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that legalized abortion nationwide. With Roe no longer in effect, the issue of abortion is left up to the states to legislate.
Photojournalist Jeffrey Bruno captured the march and counter-demonstration for CNA.
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
Hundreds of pro-abortion demonstrators tried to block a monthly pro-life march and prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Lower Manhattan on July 2, 2022, setting off a tense confrontation. Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
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Vatican City, Aug 8, 2022 / 11:21 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said Monday he is spiritually close to those hurt or killed in a fire at an oil facility in Matanzas, a city on the northwestern shore of Cuba.The fire, which beg… […]
Pope Francis prays on St. Peter’s Square, Oct. 5, 2022 / Daniel Ibáñez / CNA
Vatican City, Nov 26, 2022 / 03:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis is praying for a homeless man who was found dead near the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square on Friday morning.
Burkhard Scheffler, a 61-year-old man born in Germany, died on a cold night on the street, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said on Nov. 25.
Like many homeless people in Rome, Scheffler sometimes spent his nights sleeping under the shelter of the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square, where he received assistance from the Vatican Dicastery for the Service of Charity.
In the past decade, Pope Francis has established many services near the Vatican for the homeless, including a four-story homeless shelter, a medical clinic, a laundry service, showers, and an ambulance.
“Pope Francis learned with sorrow of the death of Burkhard Scheffler near the colonnade of St. Peter’s last night,” Bruni said.
“In his prayer, the pope remembers Burkhard and all those who are forced to live without a home in Rome and around the world and invites the faithful to join him.”
Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, entrusted Burkhard to the intercession of St. Francis while on pilgrimage in Assisi.
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, before the Monstrance in Eucharistic Adoration in 2021. / Dennis Callahan/Archdiocese of San Francisco
Baltimore, Md., Nov 20, 2022 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San… […]
1 Comment
Is anyone surprised? That’s what they do when they don’t get their way, and the MSM will blame it all on the pro-lifers because – that’s what THEY do.
Is anyone surprised? That’s what they do when they don’t get their way, and the MSM will blame it all on the pro-lifers because – that’s what THEY do.