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Pro-Lifers at Seneca See Hopeful Signs

The Seneca abortion mill on Northern Parkway in Baltimore is showing signs that it may not be open much longer, and a hardy band of pro-lifers are praying for its early demise.

A man and woman wearing orange “pro-choice escort” vests, posted outside the entrance to the professional building housing Seneca Women’s Health Care on the morning of July 10, indicated that the abortion mill was open for business.

But an alert Jeanne Nollen, one of 19 pro-lifers praying in front of the facility, did not spot any “customers” entering the building for abortions that morning.

Whenever a car pulled onto the building’s private parking lot, Jeanne would walk over and call out to the emerging passengers, “Do you know there’s an abortion mill in that building?”

Many of them would approach her to talk, often telling her that they were going to one of the two dentists who had offices in the building.

None of the women going into the building that morning appeared to be of the age likely to be a  Seneca client.

Jeanne said she has phoned Seneca “plenty of times,” posing as a mother wanting to schedule her daughter for an abortion, and talked to a woman who, she believes, is Seneca Director Kathy Rogers.

The woman told her that Seneca does abortions every other Saturday (which is why the pro-life group schedules its prayer vigils for every other Saturday), and admitted that they were not doing much business and were having a hard time attracting clients.

The first time that Jeanne walked toward the parking lot that morning to talk to someone, the female “escort” followed her.  By the time the two walked back, they were chatting amiably and the “escort” was wearing a broad smile.

“I like her,” Jean said.  “She wouldn’t speak to me at first.  But now I speak to her on a regular basis.  And I pray for her.”

At a past Rosary vigil at Seneca, Jeanne befriended a young male “escort” with the same disarming kindness.

“We talked constantly,” she recalled.  “A passerby joined in and told him, ‘If you realized that abortion is murder, you would never support it.’  The young man never came back.”

The 19 prayer warriors recited the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary twice, the second time for the conversion of abortionists, the men and women contemplating abortion, and for politicians, courts and judges involved in abortion-related decisions.

Six or seven very lifelike newborn baby dolls, dressed in pink and blue, added a cheerful note to the scene as they “slept” in a baby carrier and a large wicker basket, or were carried about by the three children in the pro-life group.

A man driving by in a black SUV called out, “My prayers are with you!  Thank-you for what you’re doing.”

A young African-American motorist, attracted by the nine pro-lifers displaying signs along Northern Parkway, stopped to ask Defend Life Director Jack Ames whether she could donate money, and what else she could do to help.

Two balloons strung together, one red, one white, soaring past, high in the sky, caught the attention of several of the pro-lifers.

“I think they are a sign from heaven that our Lord is blessing our efforts here,” said Mary Alice Spadaro, of St. Francis Xavier parish in Hunt Valley.

“In the Divine Mercy chaplet we pray, ‘O blood and water which gushes forth from the heart of Jesus as a fountain of Mercy for us, we trust in you.’”

The red and white balloons represent the blood and water from Christ’s side, she explained.

“There is no such thing as coincidence,” she added.