Parishioners who attended Mother's Day services at one New York City Catholic church over the weekend had to sift through more than a wrought-iron gate and usual happy greetings with hugs and handshakes. There were barricades, gun-toting police and two groups of people shouting at each other.
There was also lots of local media present at the Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in Lower Manhattan.
Why such a scene? Abortion rights have taken center stage in America again, and mostly because of its magnification last week since a leaked memo from one Supreme Court justice suggesting the historic Roe v. Wade case protecting a woman's right to abortion could be overturned.
St. Patrick's has become a regular site for pro-abortion activists to protest, albeit normally just a handful of people. The pro-abortion voice at St. Patrick's on Saturday became louder, and somewhat even quite disturbing to watch, in a viral video from FreedomNews.TV that had already gained 2.3 million views by Sunday evening local time.
Pro-Abortion Protest Face Off with Anti-Abortion Group at NYC Church https://t.co/dj3nUr3q4A
The memo written by Justice Samuel Alito leaked on Monday, May 2, infuriating Democrats and most left-leaning folks in the country. By the end of the week, there were pro-choice protesters who gathered outside the homes of Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump-appointed Justice Bret Kavanaugh.
There were also the threats of protests at Catholic churches around the country, which conservatives amplified ahead of time to alert churchgoers. Any protests elsewhere were non-existent or barely covered by even local media.
Franklin Graham, who's the son of late-Christian evangelist Billy Graham, urged folks to pack churches on Sunday in order to "celebrate life."
"I hope Christians will attend church this Sunday in greater numbers than ever before — to celebrate and thank God for our mothers, and to celebrate LIFE," Graham wrote in this Facebook post. "These protesters are promoting death, not life."
Fox News began reporting on the potential church protests on Thursday and Friday, even uncovering carrier UPS' past donations to certain pro-choice groups.
"UPS, The UPS Foundation, and our employees have a long history of supporting a wide array of nonprofit organizations," said UPS spokesman Malcolm Berkley in a statement to Fox Business. "While we do not agree with one-hundred percent of every nonprofit's actions or opinions, we direct our giving to key areas we do support."
"In this case, our grants have been directed to programs for literacy and English for Speakers of Other Languages," Berkley added. "We will evaluate our giving with this group, as we do all others."
As for the video, which shows a group of men locked arm-in-arm and chanting on the front steps of St. Patrick's, there's a woman dancing around while wearing barely anything. She shouts, rips apart baby dolls and even flashes the crowd.
Donald Trump Jr. chimed in to mock Democrats while sharing the video on Twitter.
"Dear democrats displays like this are really making me and everyone I know lean much more pro-choice. Please stop doing this so us conservatives have a chance this November!" Trump Jr. wrote.
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