Six members of the pro-life community, including two priests, who were participating in the Red Rose Rescue campaign of September 15, will stand trial today in Virginia for refusing to leave abortion clinics where they attempted to speak with women scheduled for abortions.
Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, headed by Monica Miller, Ph.D. who was also arrested on the same day for refusing to leave an abortion clinic in Michigan, is reporting on the case which will try six people who were participating in the Red Rose Rescue campaign on September 15 at the time of their arrest.
The Red Rose Rescue consists of pro-lifers offering red roses to women in the waiting room of abortion clinics. Attached to the rose is a card with words of encouragement and phone numbers for local pregnancy help centers.
“The goal of the Red Rose Rescue is to persuade women in the waiting room to reconsider their decision to abort and leave the clinic with at least one of the rescuers,” Dr. Miller wrote in a recent email blast. “The remaining rescuers choose to stay in the clinic in solidarity with the unborn about to be aborted.”
Monica Miller, Ph.D.
In Virginia, six pro-lifers who were participating in the campaign entered the Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic and were arrested after refusing to leave when confronted by law enforcement. The six people arrested were Fr. Stephen Imbarrato who is associated with Priests for Life, Fr. Fidelis Moscinski with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, pro-life heroine Joan Andrews Bell and three other women, Julie Haag, Bonnie Borel Donahue and Joan McKee.
Their trial is being conducted today at the Alexandria District Court where they will be tried on charges of trespass which carries a maximum 90-day sentence.
At the same time, in the state of Michigan, four more pro-lifers were arrested for trespass. Those arrested at the Michigan clinic were Dr. Miller, who is also a Women of Grace board member, along with Will Goodman, Matthew Connolly and twenty-year-old Abby McIntyre who attends Indiana State University and interned with Bryan Kemper of Stand True.
These rescuers were successful in getting a trial by jury that will enable them to witness to what happens in abortion facilities. Their trial is scheduled for Saint Valentine’s Day, Feb.14, 2018. They are represented by Robert Muise of the American Freedom Law Center.
As Dr. Miller explains, “The Red Rose Rescue is an act of charity for women who feel, for whatever reason, that they must abort their innocent unborn children. Those who perform the rescues are willing to embrace risks for these women and their babies. They will go into the very places where the unborn are put to death and extend help to the moms. Should this help be refused—they will not leave the abortion centers but remain in solidarity with the helpless victims oppressed by the injustice of abortion.”
She added: “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 centers where the innocent are rejected—and in these dark holes we seek to bring hope, true peace and the presence of God.”
Let us keep these brave defenders of the unborn in our prayers!
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