“If abortions arnt safe neither r u [sic].”
That was just one of the phrases scrawled across a Christian pro-life pregnancy resource center in Minneapolis over the weekend where windows were also shattered by vandals.
Police were flagged down just after 1 a.m. Saturday by a Metro Transit bus driver who had witnessed suspects causing damage to property on a building at 2015 Chicago Avenue in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis, according to dispatch audio.
Police arrived back at the location, which was a few blocks from where the bus driver had flagged them down, and said they found “multiple damaged windows and graffiti.” Police eventually requested police crime lab personnel to respond to the scene where they indicated that potential evidence had been left behind.
The building houses New Life Family Services (NLFS), which is a privately funded Christian, pro-life pregnancy center, and their adjacent First Care clinic. According to its website, the NLFS center offers pregnancy-related services including testing, counseling, and resources as well as licensed adoption services, post-abortion recovery, and a parenting support program.
The center posted a video on social media the following morning showing the damage to the building, which they said had just opened a couple of months ago. “Abortion activists damaged the building and left threatening messages,” Carl Nelson said in the video. Nelson is the president of Transform Minnesota, an affiliate ministry to NLFS.
A statement on NLFS’s website following the vandalism stated, in part, “Our First Care center in the Phillips community of Minneapolis was targeted by pro-abortion activists and badly vandalized last night. They broke windows and sprayed graffiti on the walls threatening, ‘If abortions arn’t safe neither r u.’”
The statement also said that the First Care clinic was built with private donations and provides no-cost help to families in need, including diapers, baby clothes, car seats, strollers, and other supplies as well as support from licensed social workers to help those experiencing homelessness, domestic violence or a mental health crisis.
A spokesperson for NLFS responded to an Alpha News request for further information and stated that police told them “this is considered domestic terrorism and a hate crime according to the FACE Act,” and said that police told them the incident would be reported to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
NLFS also provided additional photos of the damage showing shattered windows and graffiti that read “F12,” which stands for “f-ck the police,” and “Jane was here,” which apparently references a historical illegal abortion procurement ring.
The NLFS spokesperson told Alpha news in an email that there had been a pre-planned protest later on Saturday in front of their building. “They were mostly protesting state funding of pregnancy centers, and had signs stating that,” the NLFS spokesperson said, “while fully knowing that we do not receive any state funding.”
Tweets from the pro-abortion activists that staged the protest in front of the graffiti-covered building on Saturday acknowledged that the First Care clinic is not state funded.
While First Care is not state funded, many CPCs in Minnesota are, and legislators need to act now to pass the Positive Pregnancies Support Act to disqualify these anti-abortion, religious backed organizations from receiving tax-payer dollars!
— MN Abortion Action Committee (@mn_aac) March 5, 2023
Just last week, CNA reported that the head of the DOJ, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, fielded questions during a Senate hearing about perceived anti pro-life bias within the DOJ and FBI in their enforcement of federal laws.
Garland was asked by Utah Sen. Mike Lee during the hearing to account for a disparity in the number of prosecutions of pro-life activists over pro-abortion activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The FACE Act made it a federal crime to impede access to a pro-life pregnancy center or abortion clinic.
Garland replied by claiming that pro-life activists are easier to find because they protest in daylight “and seeing the person who did it is quite easy,” whereas pro-abortion activists use the cover of night to attack pregnancy resource centers, implying that makes them harder to identify.
As of late Sunday night, only one Twin Cities mainstream media outlet had posted a brief mention of the vandalism at the center.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
