CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio, June 8, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Six pro-life activists, including a Catholic priest, were arrested on criminal trespassing charges at two abortion facilities on Friday and Saturday as they approached women inside and counseled them against aborting their children.
Father Fidelis Moschinki, CFR, Laura F. Giles, Audrey S. Whipple, and Stephanie Berry were arrested at Northeast Ohio Women’s Center in Cuyahoga Ohio on Friday morning. Whipple is 18 years old.
Dr. Monica Migliorino Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and organizer of Red Rose Rescue missions, and 27-year-old Lauren Handy were arrested at a Planned Parenthood in Bedford Heights, Ohio on Saturday. After pro-life volunteers briefly spoke with two couples there, Miller said they “never got out of their vehicles” and exited the parking lot.
“That is a very good sign,” she told LifeSiteNews. “That gives us hope.”
When couples leave an abortion facility and have more time to think about their decision, “there’s a reprieve for the baby,” Miller said.
Miller, who is the author Abandoned: The Untold Story of the Abortion Wars, also organized the rescue at the Cuyahoga Women’s Center on Friday morning. Another rescue had been planned at a Shaker Heights abortion facility for Friday afternoon, but the abortuary was unexpectedly closed when the rescuers arrived.
Miller told LifeSiteNews there were about 10 other pro-life activists outside the abortion facility in Cuyahoga Falls who did not enter the building and were not arrested.
Meanwhile, the closure of the Shaker Heights facility “was kind of a mystery,” Miller said, “because there is no question that that clinic was taking appointments from 1:00 o’clock to 3:00 o’clock: chemical abortions.”
Miller said the closure was unannounced and to her knowledge nobody was notified of cancelled or rescheduled abortions.
The Red Rose Rescues are something of a revival of successful tactics used during the early days of the pro-life movement, before the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) imposed harsh penalties on pro-lifers who save babies by physically blocking “access” to abortion facilities. They are also inspired by Canadian activist Mary Wagner, who has repeatedly entered Toronto abortion centers and offered red roses to mothers waiting to have their children aborted. Wagner has spent six years in jail for her actions.
Before their arrests, Red Rose Rescuers offered moms red roses and cards with the phone numbers of local pregnancy centers and the message: “You were made to love and to be loved … your goodness is greater than the difficulties of your situation. Circumstances in life change. A new life, however tiny, brings the promise of unrepeatable joy.”
Miller, who was held at the Cuyahoga County Jail on Saturday for five hours before being released, said, “We try always to be very quiet and very peaceful and exceptionally passive in terms of the arrest situations. We never give any resistance.”
Miller said the Red Rose Rescuers’ practice of entering abortion facilities is a way of “moving the sidewalk counseling into the actual abortion facility.”
“Our goal is to talk to moms one on one and give them a hope that they otherwise wouldn’t have,“ she said. “They’ve already gone past the sidewalk counselors on the sidewalk and so this is our last effort to reach them before they walk down a hallway to abort their baby.”
Miller noted the Planned Parenthood in Bedford Heights is configured in such a way as to prevent sidewalk counselors from speaking with women before they enter the facility.
“They have a separate entrance specifically dedicated to the woman scheduled for abortion,” and it’s around the back of the building, in their parking lot,” she said. “The only way we were able to reach those moms was by going on the parking lot to talk to them.”
Miller said the mission of the Red Rose Rescues has two levels.
The first is the “11th hour effort to persuade these moms not to go through with the abortion, and to offer them help in the last few minutes before they walk down that hallway to abort their babies.” The second level of the mission is “to stay there for the baby.”
“They deserve a defense,” Miller said. “They deserve someone to stand up and witness for them. So that’s why we don’t leave them. We remain in solidarity with the victims of abortion. And that’s why we don’t leave. And that’s where the possibility of arrest is going to come in, because when the police order us to leave we very politely refuse and tell them why.”
According to the Akron Beacon Journal, the four arrested in Cuyahoga Falls have pleaded not guilty to fourth-degree misdemeanor charges of criminal trespassing. Their trial dates are set for July and they have all been released on $2,500 personal recognizance bonds.
Miller and Handy have been given a pretrial date of June 22.
Since 2017, there have been close to 20 Red Rose Rescues in the United States. Legally, they have resulted in charges being dropped a number of times, notably in federal court; others have ended in trespassing convictions. The state of Michigan has treated rescuers the most harshly, jailing pro-lifers and even charging four with a felony for obstruction of officers. Michigan’s attorney general is a lesbian in a same-sex “marriage.”
PETITION UPDATE (9/26/2020):
With President Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we are closer than we have been in decades to seeing Roe vs. Wade overturned.
We now encourage the Senate to confirm Barrett as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Judge Barrett has a fantastic track recond on sanctity of life issues, has seven children, and is a devout believer. She is the perfect remedy for Ruth Bader Ginsburg's radical pro-abortionism.
Please READ the full story here: 'BREAKING: Trump nominates Catholic mom of 7 Judge Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court'
And then, please SIGN this petition telling the High Court that it's now time to end the activist Roe vs. Wade judgment. Thank you!
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PETITION UPDATE (6/29/2020):
In a decision which has imperiled more abortion-minded women, sentenced more preborn to death, and upset pro-lifers across the nation,the United States Supreme Court decided 5-4 to strike down a Louisiana law requiring basic medical precautions in the event of abortion complications, with Chief Justice John Roberts reversing his own past decision to uphold a similar Texas law.
Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the majority opinion, which held that the Louisiana law was unconstitutional for the simple fact that it was “almost word-for-word identical” to the Texas one the court already struck down in 2016.
In his concurring opinion, Chief Justice Roberts acknowledged that he had “joined the dissent in Whole Woman’s Health and continue to believe that the case was wrongly decided. The question today however is not whether Whole Woman’s Health was right or wrong, but whether to adhere to it in deciding the present case.”
We call on the Supreme Court to stop supporting the culture of death and overturn Roe vs Wade, now.
PETITION UPDATE (1/20/2020):
Hundreds of thousands of people will gather in Washington, D.C., this coming Friday, January 24th, for the March for Life. They will be praying for an end to Roe vs Wade, as the Supreme Court will hear a crucial, abortion-related case later this year in March. United our voices can change the course of history. Sign this petition TODAY! (LEARN MORE BELOW)
PETITION UPDATE (1/3/2020):
In advance of the Supreme Court's hearing arguments in an important abortion case later this year in March, 207 U.S. Senators and Representatives have signed amicus briefs supporting a Louisiana law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a hospital nearby an abortion center.
Some of these supporting briefs also suggest that now is the time to reconsider Roe vs Wade as sound law.
Please SIGN this petition, calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Roe vs Wade.
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More than 60 million Americans have been slaughtered in their mother's wombs as a result of Roe v. Wade. This activist, unconstitutional ruling in 1973 has left countless women emotionally and psychologically scarred.
It was believed by many that Roe would be overturned in 1992 with Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Despite having eight Republican-appointed judges at the time, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to uphold it.
Since then, major gains have been made in the fight for life, and many lives have been saved.
However, Roe v. Wade remains the law of the land, leaving millions of defenseless pre-born children vulnerable to murder.
According to a 2016 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35% of aborted babies are African American, despite black women only making up six percent of the U.S. population. 19% of aborted babies are Hispanic.
We thus again call on the court to do everything they can to end Roe vs Wade.
Now is the time for pro-lifers to join together and ensure that all of God's children have a right to life.
Roe v. Wade must come to an end!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/supreme-court-strikes-down-louisiana-abortion-regulations
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/over-200-congressmen-as-us-supreme-court-to-reconsider-roe-v-wade
Rescuers have ranged in age from 18 to 65.