Rockford, Illinois Abortion Center Threatens Pro-Life Advocates

Opinion   |   Brad Mattes   |   Dec 10, 2010   |   1:24PM   |   Rockford, IL

Things are getting rocky in Rockford, Illinois. The town’s abortion mill is yet again the site of bizarre happenings.

For years, the Northern Illinois Women’s Center has gained a reputation for outlandish behavior, with supporters there revealing the true colors of the pro-abortion movement everywhere.

Sidewalk counselors tell us the facility owner, friends and staffers consistently display extreme perversion and hateful bigotry toward anyone opposing their efforts. In Rockford, it seems they’ve seen it all: eggs thrown at cars, racial slurs, vehicular assault, rubber chickens hanging from nooses in the windows, a nun mannequin placed in a coffin, insults hurled at praying priests, and, in short, an unending stream of mockery and hate directed toward pro-lifers.

Perhaps most shocking was when owner Wayne Webster charged outside with a running chainsaw this summer. Or the sign depicting Jesus Christ raising his middle finger with the words “Even Jesus Hates You” written below. These are just a few examples of what’s been going on there. Truly, it’s difficult to rate which among them is most offensive.

While the media is reluctant to report the abortion mill’s aggression toward peaceful citizens, it’s getting harder to ignore.

On Friday, yet another police report was filed outside the facility. According to witnesses, a man escorting a woman into the clinic “pulled his hand out of his pocket in the shape of a handgun and looked directly at the pro-lifers and said, ‘What would you do if I pulled out my .45 and put a bullet in your head?’” Shortly after, Webster came out and taunted one of the pro-lifers saying, “Maybe he should have shot you.”

Regrettably, these threats are not isolated. Violence toward pro-lifers is escalating nationwide.

Remember the brutal murder of a Michigan advocate in 2009, killed as he held a pro-life sign outside a high school? Last year, sidewalk counselors in New Mexico were literally threatened at gunpoint, and just last week, pro-life leaders Joe and Ann Scheidler woke up to the sound of asphalt bricks crashing through the front windows in their Illinois home.

The abortion industry is, by nature, a violent one. Truth is a very unwelcome commodity in a community that’s so deeply hardened to discarding the precious lives of helpless, unborn babies. Rockford reminds us of this and more. We’re not just in the midst of a political battle or a social movement. We are fighting a spiritual war — one in which we must faithfully repay evil with good, lifting up these tormented souls in prayer and pressing onward with truth and goodness on our side.

LifeNews.com Note: Bradley Mattes is the executive director of Life Issues Institute, a national pro-life educational group. Mattes is a veteran of the pro-life cause, with over 33 years of educational, political and humanitarian experience.