“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.

A few of us did make it over to Planned Parenthood. Fr. Fidelis in particular was continuously heckled. Childish stuff, mostly, making fun of the fact that his religious name is not his birth name. “Christopher! Christopher! Christopher.” His given name actually means “Christ-bearer,” so that’s not exactly an insult. Most of their other insults involved accusing him of sexually abusing boys, insisting all Catholic priests do.

“The heckler’s veto.” A friend referred to the fact that the loudest got their way, inasmuch as we did not have the procession as planned. I confess some annoyance that the police were not willing to protect our right to process the block and pray outside the clinic as a group. (I wasn’t looking forward to pushing through the blockade, but am grateful there was no actual violence beyond the abortions that are happening at Planned Parenthood today.) That public witness has been known to help give girls and women the courage to choose life rather than abortion. As the majority of abortions are now by pill, that witness in many ways is more important, reminding people that the powerful force that is Planned Parenthood has corrupted our country to a point where abortion by mail is a thing. “FREE ABORTION PILLS BY MAIL” was actually woven into a ski cap one of the women protesting our prayer was wearing. I’m curious if that gets a reaction when she’s not standing outside Planned Parenthood seething at people praying for a less violent world.

As always during these incidents, I’m overwhelmed by how angry and obviously hurt so many of the people who showed up this morning are. Pray for people who wake up in the morning want to protest people who pray for women and babies to not be pressured into abortion. “Abortion is health care,” they chanted over and over. Killing babies isn’t healthy, and the kind of demonic scenes I’ve witnessed again and again near and outside Planned Parenthood on Bleecker Street only serve as confirmation of the wreckage abortion is responsible for.