Chicago pregnancy center vandalized as Democratic National Convention closes

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 23, 2024 / 18:37 pm

A Catholic pregnancy center in Chicago called Aid for Women was vandalized in the early morning hours after the closing of the Democratic National Convention.

No one was present at the center at the time of the incident. Police have been contacted and are investigating the incident as a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, according to Mary FioRito, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a spokesperson for Aid for Women.

Aid for Women is a nonprofit that, according to its website, was “founded on the faith and teachings of the Catholic Church.” 

The nonprofit operates five pregnancy centers and two maternity homes in the Chicago area. The group partners with the Archdiocese of Chicago and offers a range of services including ultrasounds, abortion pill reversal medications, counseling, and material aid.

FioRito, who has been a regular volunteer at Aid for Women for over two decades, told CNA that the incident occurred in north Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood at 3 a.m. Friday, hours after the DNC’s final closing.

The act of vandalism was caught on the center’s security camera. The footage has now been turned over to police.

According to FioRito, four vandals splattered red paint and painted the words “fake clinic” and “the dead babies are in Gaza” on the center’s entrance. FioRito said the vandals also cemented the center’s doors shut, forcing staff to cancel all appointments on Friday — which she said were with about a dozen women.

As of Friday afternoon, the center’s doors were still cemented shut and there is no timeline on when it will be able to reopen. FioRito said this means the Aid for Women pregnancy center may have to cancel its appointments or ask women to visit another location on Saturday, which FioRito said is their busiest day.

FioRito said that when she saw the pictures of the damage to the center she was “horrified.”  

Addressing the vandals, she said: “You’re not hurting us; you’re hurting these women.”

“These are working-class women. A lot of stuff for them is a struggle. Why would you do this to women who already are facing so many obstacles? It baffles me,” she said.

The act of vandalism was caught on the center’s security camera. The footage has now been turned over to police.

According to FioRito, there was an unusually low police presence in the neighborhood at the time of the incident due to the convention, which took place in another part of town.  

FioRito lamented that pregnancy centers have borne the brunt of anti-abortion anger since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“It’s so strange to me that pregnancy centers are somehow the collateral damage of all this anger over Roe being overturned because the pregnancy centers didn’t have anything to do with it,” she said. “Pregnancy centers are largely apolitical … they are not political advocates, they are not legal advocates, they simply help women.”

Edgewater is an urban neighborhood FioRito described as culturally diverse and “not a wealthy neighborhood.”

“Many of the women we serve are not women of means,” she said. “Pregnancy is hard enough. You don’t need something like this layered on top of it, making your life even harder.”

“If the people who did this were intending to hurt the pro-life movement or get back at the pro-life movement for Dobbs, all they’re really hurting is poor women when they do something like this,” FioRito said.

The Democratic National Convention took place at Chicago’s United Center this week, Aug. 19–22. Several of the Democratic speakers, including Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, highlighted abortion as a central issue in the 2024 election and condemned pro-life attempts to restrict abortion.

A local Planned Parenthood operated a free mobile abortion clinic just outside the convention. Planned Parenthood Great Rivers reported on Thursday that the mobile clinic had provided nine vasectomies and eight chemical abortions.