Rosaries in hand, Lisa Basarab (left), Mary Nooney and Michael Manzo take on Planned Parenthood

On a Saturday morning in June, the 600 block of North Howard Street wears a lonely, forsaken look.

Few cars pass down it and fewer pedestrians; there is little to entice visitors in the dirty, deserted store fronts or the occasional shabby-genteel antique store.

A light rail train clatters swiftly by, as though anxious to be gone to pleasanter places. The pungent odor of urine wafts up from a doorway.

Amidst this drab scene of urban decay and desolation sits the Baltimore headquarters of Planned Parenthood. To its credit it has made no attempt to paper over its ugly, blank facade with a deceivingly attractive veneer.

The building looks so bleak and forbidding, in fact, that a sign over its door proclaiming, 'All hope abandon, ye who enter here!' would not look at all out of place.

There are pleasanter places, in short, to spend one's Saturday mornings. But, pacing single file in a rectangular path in front of the building are three members of an ad hoc group that has been praying here every Saturday for over a decade.

'Sometimes we have as many as 12 people here, but a lot of people are away on vacation,' says Mary Nooney, one of the three. They carry no signs, only Rosaries.

'We're not picketing, we're praying,' she explains cheerfully. Each week they pray aloud the entire Rosary, all 15 decades.

'We pray for the conversion of the people who come here,' says Lisa Basarab, who has been coming here for eight years. 'It's an opportunity for us to be at the foot of Calvary, because people die here. We're here as witnesses to the truth.'

'It adds to your faith; you're living your faith,' agrees Michael Manzo, the third member of the trio. 'It's very powerful to see someone going in -- you know you're making a difference, you're witnessing.'

Mary started coming with her husband in 1989 after learning of the activity through Defend Life.

Planned Parenthood reacted to the first appearance of the prayer group by calling the police out in force. Squads of police cars blocked off half of Howard Street; apparently Planned Parenthood thought the group was going to attempt a 'rescue.'

The expected rescue did not materialize, and no one tried to block the passage of the women seeking abortions. Nevertheless, every Saturday from then on, from two to four young female staffers, wearing sashes across their chests with 'Escort' emblazoned on them, led their prospective customers past the peaceful, praying witnesses.

Clinic staff continued to call the police, who would park on Monument Street and occasionally ask the marchers who their leader was. For the most part, though, they just told them to 'keep moving.'

'Some of them were on our side,' says Mary.

Clinic staff would take their photos and write down their license plates.

Lisa remembers a time when a security guard told her he was going to call the police and have her arrested. Sure enough, shortly afterwards a policeman drove up and shouted to the guard, 'What's she doing?'

'I'm just praying,' Lisa replied. 'Is that all?' the officer replied with a look of disgust, and drove off.

They don't wave signs or pictures, they don't confront or argue with the 'customers,' they don't lock arms and block the entrance.

But by their very quietness, they attract attention. 'We're very approachable, very easy to talk to,' says Mike.

'The people who come by will often stop one of us and talk,' says Mary. 'Sometimes they'll ask what we're doing. You can tell we make some people uncomfortable.'

When you make people uncomfortable, they question the rightness of what they're doing, comments Mike.

Lisa recalled a man who would often stop to talk to her on his way into the clinic, where he worked as an accountant. He told her he was a Christian and did not approve of abortion, but felt it was better that women who did choose to have abortions should have 'safe' ones.

However, he seemed to be developing questions about the rightness of working there.

One day, feeling discouraged, Lisa prayed to the Blessed Virgin, 'Show me some sign that we're doing some good!'

Minutes later, the man came out and said, 'I want to tell you I've been very moved by the devotions of you people, and I'm quitting!'

Lisa learned later that he had received instructions and had become a Catholic.

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