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The Decline and Fall of Hillcrest Northwest

1985 - Catholics United for Life starts a training program for sidewalk counselors, led by newly ordained Fr. Thomas Morrow, at St. Bernard’s, Riverdale.  The newly trained counselors counsel at the Hillcrest abortion mill, 7603 Georgia Avenue, NW.  Tom Grenchik, director of the Pro-Life Office of the Washington Archdiocese, reports 500 documented turnarounds during subsequent years.

JAN. 22, 1987 - One hundred pro-lifers chain themselves together, block the clinic entrance and are arrested.  Hillcrest NW closes down for the day.

LATE 1980s - Responding to an influx of Hispanic women at the abortion mill, Fr. Bill Ryan at St. Thomas the Apostle, a Hispanic church in D.C., recruits Spanish-speaking parishioners as sidewalk counselors.  Turnarounds increase; counselors give baby showers, are asked to be babies’ godparents.

EARLY 1990s - Hillcrest NW starts employing “escorts,” who block counselors from talking to or giving literature to women: they harass, push counselors around, then call police and claim counselors assaulted them.  Simultaneously, the number of women coming for abortions drops.

MAY - JULY, 2001 - Catholics United for Life, led by Tom Grenchik, and Father Morrow organize a Saturday Rosary novena in front of Hillcrest NW.  When the novena ends, many continue the Saturday Rosary; some become sidewalk counselors.

JULY 13, 2002 - France(i)s the Fetus, aka Mike of Lifeguard, visits Hillcrest NW in a “street theater” effort to defuse tensions.  The deathscorts are not amused.

FEB. 21, 2004 - Hillcrest NW opens, then closes for the day, after a temporary nurse walks out.

FEB. 28, 2004 - Hillcrest NW opens, then closes at 10:00 a.m.

MARCH 6, 2004 - Hillcrest NW does not open.

MARCH 13, 2004 - Hillcrest does not open.  Phone calls to Hillcrest confirm that Hillcrest Northwest and Hillcrest Southeast, on Pennsylvania Avenue, are both closed.