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CHICAGO, August 30, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Employees at a Chicago abortion clinic swore they saw 62-year-old Anna Marie Mesia, a regular pro-life sidewalk counselor, touch an abortion client on July 25, and that the touching amounted to “battery.”

The only problem? Mesia says she wasn’t even at the Albany Medical Surgical Center on the day the alleged incident happened.

Now it appears the abortion workers may have second-guessed their account, after they failed to show at a court hearing this week. The alleged victim also failed to show.

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The mutual absences left the prosecutors with no choice but to drop the battery charges.

According to the Pro-Life Action League, Mesia was one of a number of pro-life activists standing outside the abortion facility on July 26, when three police arrived in two cars. After entering the facility, they reemerged, and approached Anna Marie.

They explained that she was accused of touching an abortion client the previous day, and that she was under arrest.

The middle-aged woman explained that she hadn’t been at the abortion facility for the past week, but she was handcuffed and hauled away, anyway.

Mesia told LifeSiteNews.com in an interview that she was “stunned” when she was first told that she was being arrested, and that she was “very pleased” with the result of the case.

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Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society, who represented Mesia, says he believes the prosecution is part of a pattern of harassment against pro-life demonstrators.

“Recently, numerous pro-life advocates have been subjected to arrest on false and baseless charges by abortion clinics and their employees,” said Breen. “We will use every legal tool at our disposal to stop this harassment.”

Meanwhile, Mesia has never stopped her sidewalk counseling. “She’s been back at sidewalk counseling since the day after she was arrested, and her resolve has only been strengthened by the experience of her wrongful arrest,” said John Jansen of the Pro-Life Action League this week.

The Thomas More Society says it plans to pursue civil damages against the abortion clinic manager and the patron for malicious prosecution.