A Catholic Church in Reston, VA was damaged by fire and pro-abortion graffiti early Sunday morning following the Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. No suspects have been identified or apprehended at this time.
St. John Neumann Catholic Community Church reported a fire on the grounds Sunday at 6:45 a.m., according to WUSA9. The Fairfax County fire department responded to the scene first and discovered "smoldering mulch" and the presence of fire accelerants.
A sign at the entrance of the church was spray painted with the message "this won't stop" and another location at the church had graffiti reading "separation of church and state" according to Reston police who responded to the scene alongside the fire department. Separation was misspelled "seperation."
There were at least two other sites on the church's property vandalized with pro-abortion messages. Police determined the graffiti was a message in response to the Supreme Court's ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe, but have yet to identify any suspects.
The church offers Mass at 7:30 a.m., meaning churchgoers who arrived that morning to worship saw the aftermath of the attack and the hostile messages on the walls.
This is just another instance in a series of attacks by abortion advocates on churches and crisis pregnancy centers across the country that began in earnest after the leaked Dobbs opinion earlier this year. Many vandals have left Antifa and anarchist symbols as well as redundant pro-abortion taglines like "my body, my choice" and "if abortions aren't safe, you aren't either."
On Saturday morning, a pregnancy center in Lynchburg, VA was also damaged and vandalized. Jane's Revenge admitted responsibility for this attack and Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) explicitly denounced it, something other elected officials have largely neglected to do.
There is no room for this in Virginia, breaking the law is unacceptable. This is not how we find common ground. Virginia State Police stands ready to support local law enforcement as they investigate.https://t.co/BONC83jKgj
— Governor Glenn Youngkin (@GovernorVA) June 26, 2022
Early Saturday morning, hours after the SCOTUS decision, a Christian pregnancy center in Colorado faced significant damage from fire and smoke after a suspected arson attack by pro-abortion activists. It was also vandalized (via AP):
The front door was broken and the front of the building had been spray painted with the words, “if abortions aren’t safe neither are you.” On the concrete porch were the words “bans off our bodies.”
The FBI is involved in this investigation. These are only three examples of the many attacks that have happened after the Dobbs ruling.
As Townhall has reported, the Department of Homeland Security identified churches and pregnancy centers as high risk targets of radical pro-abortion group Jane's Revenge which promised to carry out a "Night of Rage" on the day SCOTUS released its opinion in favor of Dobbs. The Diocese of Arlington, which St. John Neumann belongs to, warned its parishes months ago to prepare for violence or vandalism from abortion advocates.
Jane's Revenge, which has been responsible for a number of attacks on churches and crisis pregnancy centers, released a statement earlier this month outlining their intent to attack pro-life people and groups. They said when pro-life groups work to keep unborn babies from being killed, "medical autonomy is stripped away, humanity is increasingly criminalized, and merely surviving becomes largely untenable."
The group directed their hostile statement to pro-life groups and crisis pregnancy centers and said (via Jane's Revenge):
It’s open season, and we know where your operations are. The infrastructure of the enslavers will not survive. We will never stop, back down, slow down, or retreat. We did not want this; but it is upon us, and so we must deal with it proportionally. We exist in confluence and solidarity with all others in the struggle for complete liberation. Our recourse now is to defend ourselves and to build robust, caring communities of mutual aid, so that we may heal ourselves without the need of the medical industry or any other intermediary. Through attacking, we find joy, courage, and strip the veneer of impenetrability held by these violent institutions.
To translate, Jane's Revenge is saying here that institutions dedicated to caring for mothers and children in crisis situations are "enslavers" and "violent." Meanwhile it calls itself and other abortion advocates joyful, courageous, and caring.
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