Joshua Gill on May 20, 2019
Catholic parishioners in Pennsylvania discovered Sunday that a vandal spray-painted their church with pro-abortion graffiti, sparking public outcry and a police investigation.
The as yet unidentified culprit wrote, “You do not have the right to decide how others lives,” in black spray paint across the glass doors of the Notre Dame de Lourdes Church and added “#Pro-Choice” on the side of the building, according to CBS3 Philly. Parishioners like Jessica Prince said they were devastated by the defacement of their church.
“It was very shocking to come up to the church and see that,” Prince told CBS3. “I’d have to say the first half of mass was me crying the whole time because I was so upset somebody would do that to the church.”
WATCH:
#RidleyTwp. Police was called to Notre Dame de Lourdes Church yesterday for a report on vandalism. Spray painted on the front doors was, “You do not have the right to decide how people live #prochoice” https://t.co/hQ18tmRVG0 pic.twitter.com/w2TxPxcMg7
— Matt Petrillo (@MattPetrillo) May 20, 2019
The vandalism came amid national outcry over Alabama’s latest abortion law, which bans all abortion except in cases where pregnancy poses serious health risks to the mother. The new law holds abortion providers criminally responsible for performing abortions but does not penalize women who seek abortions.
Police have surveillance video of the pro-abortion vandalism thanks to the principal of the adjacent school, according to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. They are working on identifying the suspect caught on film.
“The school principal was able to bring up video from the security cameras of the vandalism in progress,” the archdiocese said in a statement. “It will be shared with the Ridley Police Department’ detectives and the parish will cooperate with law enforcement as it investigates the incident. This afternoon, parishioners successfully removed the graffiti.”
