Kansas Church Vandalized with ‘My Body My Choice’ Graffiti

Vandals targeted a church in Kansas over the weekend, spray-painting the side of the building with a pro-abortion message.

The graffiti on the outside of the Church of the Ascension in Overland Park read, “My body my choice,” FOX4 Kansas City reported. The vandals also poured paint over the church’s statue of Mary to look like blood.

Overland Park police are investigating the incident. 

“On Saturday night, July 9^th, our parish school was vandalized with graffiti, likely an angry reaction to the Church’s advocacy for the passage of the Value Them Both Amendment,” the church wrote in a statement on its website. “There were security outlooks posted on the campus, but the vandal eluded their initial notice.  We are in the process of taking bids for additional security cameras, but unfortunately the new cameras have not yet been installed.”

The church went on to say that while the vandalism is a “sad event, it is not surprising.”

“Our VTB signs have been repeatedly vandalized and many parishioners have reported their yard signs stolen,” the statement said, adding that since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, “the rage toward those who oppose abortion on demand, seems to have increased dramatically.”

Archbishop Joesph Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, told Fox4 the vandalism “is an effort of intimidation to try and silence the church.”

The church is the latest to come under attack since the Supreme Court returned the power to regulate abortion to the states. As the fight over abortion in the U.S. has grown more contentious, churches and pregnancy centers have increasingly been on the receiving end of vandalism and violent attacks.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has tracked at least 152 incidents of vandalism at Catholic sites in the U.S. since May 2020. The incidents, which have occurred across 36 states and Washington, D.C., include arson; statues beheaded; statue limbs cut, smashed, and painted; gravestones defaced with swastikas and anti-Catholic language and American flags next to them burned; and other destruction and vandalism.

The USCCB began tracking vandalism at Catholic sites after a pair of Catholic churches — San Gabriel Mission in California and Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Florida – were set on fire on July 11, 2020.