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COLLEGIANS TARGET D.C. ABORTION MILL

As a few stray snowflakes float down aimlessly from a gray sky, a crowd of collegians kneel on the icy ground in front of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, D.C.

Students from Christendom College, in Front Royal, Va., come up to the abortion mill on 16th Street every Saturday.

“Typically, we have 25 to 30 people,” says Chrissie Walsh, a Christendom senior who is in charge of the sidewalk counseling for the college’s pro-life group, Shield of Roses.

But on February 18, eighty-plus students are crowded onto the small grass plot, praying the rosary and singing hymns.

Chrissie stands a few feet apart from the kneelers, on the main sidewalk.  She is not praying aloud with them – rather, she is on the alert for young women of childbearing age who may be headed in for an abortion.

But her intent demeanor gives one the impression that she is praying silently.

A scowling, pudgy female “escort,” in her bright orange pinney, stands guard at the front door, while a second, equally grim, stations herself at the head of the entrance sidewalk, giving the appearance that no pro-lifer may pass her.

It’s a false impression.

“They used to paint a black line on the sidewalk and say we couldn’t go past it,” says Chrissie, who has been coming here since her freshman year.

“But they were lying to us about the property line.  The public property line goes right up to the entrance.”

As if to illustrate her point, as a young woman and man, apparently heading to the clinic, approach, Chrissie falls into step beside them.

“Good morning, if I could have a second of your time and offer some alternatives – there are crisis centers in D.C. that can help you,” she tells them.

While Walsh talks, she holds out a pamphlet, which the young woman accepts.

“You don’t have to talk to her, you don’t have to take that,” instructs a tall, long-haired male escort, who is also striding alongside the couple; “she can’t follow you through the door.”

“Be careful, hold onto it; they’ll try to take it from you,” warns Chrissie, now at the front door.  The couple disappear inside the building, and she returns to her post on the sidewalk.

The Christendom pro-lifers have been coming to the 16th Street abortion mill for 20 years.

“They used to call the police on us for silly reasons,” says Walsh.

“One time they called them because one guy had a large crucifix which they considered threatening.”

A former Christendom student is suing Planned Parenthood, she says, because “after we found out the black line was a lie, he crossed it, and a security guard roughed him up.  Of course, they called the police, but they charged Planned Parenthood!”

Now that these former misunderstandings have been ironed out, the escorts – there are five or six of them – stick to their choreographed roles.

Two of them, posted at the corner of 16th and L, wear tight smiles and laugh raucously from time to time in a seemingly deliberate show of indifference to the phalanx of kneeling pro-lifers.  They look past Chrissie and her companion sidewalk counselors as if they don’t see them.

Not so, the tall, long-haired escort.  He has formed a friendship of sorts with Chrissie.  He says his name is Philip.

His work as an escort is earning him “credits toward heaven,” he says with a straight face.

“I’m trying to get Catholics to pray for him by name,” Chrissie responds with a slight smile.

“It’s been great this morning; all the women have taken our literature,” she confides.

A philosophy major, Walsh hopes to go into pro-life work of some kind on graduation.

As the kneeling prayers are nearly finished, a flurry of “pro-choice” hatred seems to erupt.

A young man walking past delivers a loud stream of invective. “You should stop imposing your religious beliefs on the country!” he shouts.

Close on his heels, a well-dressed, middle-aged passerby is more curt. “You should have been aborted,” he growls at several pretty collegians standing on the sidewalk.

“Thank God for Planned Parenthood!  Thank God for Planned Parenthood!” yells a young woman in a car.

The car pulls up close to the curb and the woman leans out the window.  “My body, my choice!  My body, my choice!” she screams at the students.

Students from Catholic University are starting to arrive, to begin their late morning prayer shift.

After them, says Walsh, “Usually, we have a smaller group from Christendom that comes from 1:30 to 4:00 and hands out Project Rachel information.”

The Shield of Roses has tried to form the group according to the sidewalk counseling philosophy of Msgr. Philip Reilly, founder of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, she says.

“Our primary goal is to save souls, and secondarily to save lives.  In the past few years we’ve gotten much larger groups to come here and have had the miracles of women changing their minds:  that’s because of more prayers.”

The group’s third goal is to provide an opportunity for Christendom students to get involved in the fight for the Culture of Life.

“They come here once and see what’s happening, and they get on fire; they want to do something about it,” Chrissie explains.