SOUTHFIELD, Michigan (Red Rose Rescue) — Pro-life activists who conducted a defense of the unborn at a Michigan abortion center were physically assaulted by its security guards.
On Saturday, April 23, 2022, a Red Rose Rescue took place at the Northland Family Planning abortion center, one of three abortion centers owned and operated by Renee Chelian where the unborn are put to death through the 24th week of pregnancy.
April 23 Red Rose Rescuers left to right: Laura Gies, Father Fidelis Moscinski, Elizabeth Wagi, Monica M. Miller, and Jacob Gregor
Ten pro-lifers participated in the Red Rose Rescue.
The Southfield, MI clinic on Evergreen Road is located on the second floor of a large building that contains several other businesses. The building is surrounded by a large parking lot that makes it virtually impossible for pro-lifers to reach out to women entering the building for their scheduled abortions. Therefore, this Red Rose Rescue was conducted at three different locations inside the building that effectively maximized the opportunity to talk to mothers and counsel them to choose life.
Three pro-lifers were in the lobby: Pam Gesund, Robert Kovaly, and 20-year-old Audrey Whipple. Robert and Audrey had already participated in Red Rose Rescues.
Another group of rescuers stood in the second floor hallway that leads to the entrance of the abortion center: CPLS director Monica Migliorino Miller, Laura Gies, and Matthew Connolly.
Four pro-lifers actually entered the abortion center at 8:45 am: Father Fidelis Moscinski, veteran rescuer Elizabeth Wagi, 25-year-old Bernadette Patel, and 28-year-old Jacob Gregor. When they entered the waiting room, two women were already seated there.
Jacob spoke to one of the woman scheduled for an abortion, and when offered the red rose she took it. Elizabeth Wagi spoke with the other woman, encouraging her to choose life. Attached to each rose used in the rescue was a blue card that read: “God is love. And he loves you and your unborn baby. Don’t be afraid. Your life circumstances will change, and this baby will give you boundless joy. Let us help you. There is help for you and your baby.” The card included phone numbers to local pregnancy help centers.
Meanwhile the three rescuers in the hallway were able to offer pro-life literature and roses to all of the women as they got off the elevator (some accompanied by a female friend or boyfriend), meaning that literally every woman entering the Northland Family Planning clinic on this particular Saturday morning heard words of encouragement and were offered practical help to choose life.
Eventually those in the hallway heard a loud voice yelling from inside the clinic, “Get out. Get out. If you don’t have an appointment for our services, get out!” This was Sarah, the clinic director, directing her rage at the four rescuers there. Soon two very burly security guards were dispatched to the waiting room. They immediately commenced assaulting the four rescuers quietly seated inside.
Elizabeth Wagi was roughly grabbed under her arms, dragged outside the waiting room and dumped in the hallway. First time rescuer Jacob Gregor was picked up by these security guards and literally thrown through the air into the hallway.
Fr. Fidelis Moscinski, CFR, was treated most savagely as the armed abortion center guards forcefully removed him into the hallway by grabbing his neck and throwing him down to the floor. Then one of the brutal abortion guards, weighing at least 250 pounds, straddled Fr. Fidelis as the priest was prone on the floor in the hallway outside the abortion center entrance. The guard appeared to press his weight against the priest, which caused Miller to admonish the him, “What is this? A George Floyd moment?” In May 2020 Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck, causing him unable to breathe.
Miller states, “To witness this huge man on top of Fr. Fidelis was very alarming, and Father easily could have been seriously harmed. Thankfully, the large security guard stood up while Fr. Fidelis managed to get up and then kneel on the floor.”
When the guards picked up Father in the waiting room, they made his legs fly very dangerously into a glass table; it was knocked over due to these men’s reckless and completely unnecessary violence.
The security guard who attacked Fr. Fidelis called himself a “good Christian,” and even a “superhero.” The rescuers pleaded with him to quit his job and no longer receive a paycheck from blood money. He said the pro-lifers had no right to tell the women scheduled for abortion what to do.
“The violence directed at peaceful pro-lifers is but a visible window into the much greater lethal violence directed against our invisible sisters and brothers in the womb,” explained Will Goodman, a volunteer with Red Rose Rescue.
Laura Gies placed under arrest.
Approximately twenty minutes later, the local police arrived, and on behalf of the killing center, an officer named Miller informed the rescuers that they were trespassing and ordered the rescuers to leave. Dr. Monica Miller (no relation) and Fr. Fidelis tried to explain to the members of law enforcement the horrors happening to living babies at this grisly site. This included showing them photos of actual abortion victims Dr. Miller had retrieved from the trash of other abortion centers.
Officer Miller said that he was the father of a little boy he had considered aborting and that it would have been his perfect right to do so.
“The police were unsympathetic and curt as they proceeded with their unjust arrests,” said Fr. Fidelis.
Throughout the rescue, Sarah, the clinic director, continued to shout expletives including the “F” word at the silent, prayerful pro-lifers and also at the police as she ordered the officers around, accusing them of not acting fast enough. The officers were visibly annoyed with her.
Laura Gies responded to the police commands to leave by saying, “All of the people working to kill innocent people are the ones who need to leave. I won’t leave until they do.”
After eleven or twelve police vehicles had arrived on scene, Dr. Miller was the first to be handcuffed, placed under arrest, and removed from the facility by wheelchair around 9:15 a.m. Slowly, one by one the rescuers were taken away in wheelchairs from their life-defending actions and placed in police cruisers—which caused the rescue to last longer than it would otherwise have done.
Fr. Fidelis Moscinski, under arrest, wheeled to police car.
It is customary for Red Rose Rescuers not to assist actively in their unjust arrests. They refuse to walk away from the impending violence directed at the most vulnerable. Hence, officers often place the arrested rescuers in wheelchairs to remove them from the building. This evil collaboration of the government with the abortion cartels allows the killings to continue unabated.
As Mrs. Wagi was being wheeled away from the abortuary, she pleaded with the officers in her quiet voice, “Please let us go. We are not just here for the babies, but for the mothers too, who are terribly harmed by the abortion experience.”
In total, six rescuers were arrested: Dr. Monica Miller, Fr. Fidelis Moscinski, Elizabeth Wagi, Laura Gies, Jacob Gregor, and 40-year-old Matthew Connolly. The rescuers were processed and served with citations for the misdemeanor “trespass” and the misdemeanor “resisting” arrest, for failure to obey a “lawful” police command. Their initial court appearance is on May 16 at 8:30 A.M.
As of the writing of this report, Matthew Connolly, calling himself “Baby John Doe,” remains in police custody. He wishes to unite himself to the unwanted unborn and has refused to cooperate with the booking process.
Subsequent to the unjust arrests, Miller, Wagi and Gies had ample opportunities for post-abortion outreach and jail ministry with other women incarcerated with them.
“Monica spoke compassionately to the young women and led them in a beautiful prayer in the jail. Indeed, after the prayer, one of the women in the lock up with us broke into tears,” Laura Gies related.
For rescuers risking arrest, the rescue witness does not end at the abortion mill but continues into the squad car, on the way to the police station, through the courts, and within jails. At every moment the rescuers are a voice and a presence of the persecuted preborn.
Will Goodman, who was present outside the building, explains: “Rescue is like a light of reality shining through the darkness and insanity of the culture of death. The selfless sacrifices of these rescuers to save the perishing are always incredibly fruitful in this great spiritual battle to defend lives and save souls.”
In addition to the rescuers who tried to counsel women inside the building there was a large number of pro-lifers in support outside. During the entire arrest process, these were permitted to remain in the parking lot. Local media and reporters from Church Militant TV were also present.
“We have reason to believe one mom may have left the abortion facility today,” said Dr. Miller. “We may never know how our actions touched the hearts of others.”
She continued:
But what we do know is that we had some very meaningful conversations with the abortion-bound women this morning, and not one baby was abandoned today without some real, concrete love being offered to them through dedicated protective measures of nonviolent intervention. We did all we could. These moms and babies are worthy of such love and sacrifice.
The Red Rose Rescue is an act of charity for women who feel, for whatever reason, that they must have their innocent unborn children killed. Those who take part are willing to embrace risks for these women and their babies. We will go into the very places where the unborn are put to death and extend help to the moms. Should this help be refused, we will not leave the abortion centers but remain in solidarity with the helpless victims oppressed by the injustice of abortion. Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta said that her work was “to go into the dark holes of the poor.” The Red Rose Rescue is an action of going into the dark holes of the poor—namely, abortion clinics where the innocent are rejected—and in these dark holes we seek to bring hope, true peace, and the presence of God.
For more information and photographs of Saturday’s Red Rose Rescue, please click here.
Correction: This article originally stated that the security guards “grabbed Laura Gies by her backpack near her neck and pulled her body around the floor of the waiting room.” Ms. Gies contacted LifeSiteNews to say that she was in the hallway, not the waiting room, when a security guard grabbed her by her backpack and shoved her away from the door. LifeSiteNews regrets the error.