PARIS, France, November 22, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Militant pro-abortion activists hooted and hollered on Saturday as they watched police apprehend members of a pro-life group who had assembled to prayerfully witness to the life of the unborn child in front of a Paris hospital that commits abortions.
The group, SOS Tout-petits (SOS Tiny Ones), a pro-life group founded in 1986 by Dr. Xavier Dor and dedicated to peaceful monthly demonstrations to end abortion, had secured government authorization to hold the event. At the last moment, however, authorities reversed that decision citing “serious risks to public order.”
Members of the group nonetheless gathered to prayerfully witness as they had planned.
Join a Facebook page to end abortion here.
However, upon arriving at the hospital that morning, SOS Tout-petits members were picked up by police officers and escorted to a police bus where the members spent their Saturday praying. Eventually, after their identities were checked, they were released.
Jeanne Smits, an eye witness to last Saturday’s police activity, reported in Riposte Catholique that the SOS Tout-petits members were “obviously peaceful” and “inoffensive,” pointing out that most members of the group were elderly. She described Dr. Dor, who was present at the event, as being almost blind and extremely frail.
Smits says she ascertained from the police that the pro-life members of SOS Tout-petits were apprehended because of the “aggressiveness” of the pro-abortion counter-demonstration. “The police knew,” she said “that they were unable to control the violent and dangerous actions [of the counter protest].”
In September, participants in a similar pro-life vigil in Parish had been violently attacked by pro-abortion demonstrators, and had to be protected by riot police. About 30 pro-lifers were pelted with eggs, and several banners and other personal effects were stolen. A freelance photographer who arrived on the scene later was attacked by two or three persons who tried to snatch her camera.
“Babies are being killed in this hospital, we can well take a few risks,” Dr. Xavier Dor had said at the time.
The pro-life group has reportedly decided to pursue legal action against the police for breaking up their latest event.
The large public Tenon Hospital reportedly performed up to 500 legal abortions per year till 2009 when the ‘service’ was discontinued. However, socialist mayoress Frédérique Calandra responded to pressure from a pro-abortion coalition and ordered the abortion ‘service’ to resume at the Hospital this past April.
The next pro-life witness at the Tenon Hospital is scheduled for Saturday, December 10.