This is huge news from the Daily News. An abortion clinic has closed in the abortion capitol of the world New York City. And why? The landlord is blaming Catholics.
They would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling Catholics.
A Sunset Park abortion clinic has shut down after Catholic protesters drove away doctors and patients, according to the owner of the clinic.
The Ambulatory Specialty Surgery Center of Brooklyn on 43rd St., closed earlier this month and will reopen in October as a new medical center providing outpatient surgeries, but not abortion.
Catholic leaders claimed the clinic’s closure after 22 years as a victory for their anti-abortion effort. Abortion advocates said they had never heard of a clinic in the city closing under pressure from protesters.
“It was getting more and more difficult. Doctors were getting harassed and patients were getting harassed,” said building and clinic owner Terry Lazar about his decision to eliminate abortions. “It was a decision we finally had to make.”
Lazar said the clinic tried to provide both abortions and other types of procedures, but doctors and patients refused to cross the throngs of religious protesters who tried to convince them not to go in.
“You had protesters with signs and banners yelling at people telling them they were baby killers,” Lazar said. “We were trying to do both and it just wasn’t working. We would have gone out of business.”
The new clinic – slated to open as the New York Center for Specialty Surgery under the direction of a California-based medical firm – is undergoing renovations.
So far as many as 20 doctors have expressed interest in working at the new clinic – a stark difference from as recently as a month ago when Lazar struggled to find doctors willing to work there.
Monsignor Philip Reilly – leader of the group the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants – said he has gone to the center every week since it first opened to protest the abortions.
Reilly said both he and local Catholics were so happy, a celebration mass was held on Saturday at St. Michael’s Church on the same block as the clinic.
“It’s a complete victory,” said Reilly. “The people who are doing it have evolved and their hearts have changed.”
Lazar said he remained in favor of abortion, and had made the decision to shut the clinic only after Reilly and other protesters drove doctors and patients away
I’m going to try to interview someone a little closer to this story on Tuesday. This should give us all great hope.
October 2, 2012 at 11:49 am
While it's a victory for the protesters and I congratulate them for it, I wouldn't be so quick to say “The people who are doing it have evolved and their hearts have changed.” The decision to close was precipitated by the bottom line, not a change of heart. I'd keep an eye on this one.
October 2, 2012 at 3:26 pm
Hurrah! Keep up the prayers and the fight!
October 2, 2012 at 5:26 pm
Gabby, reading through the obvious bias in the story it sounds like the landlord/owner has not had a change of heart, but at least some of the doctors and clinic workers probably did, as well as many of the prospective patients. That effected the bottom line and the guy had to close. Keep him in your prayers and watch him to see if he tries to open another clinic nearby, but a victory none-the-less.
October 2, 2012 at 6:35 pm
@ Gabby: I am content to have evildoers cease to do evil, their hearts are their business.
October 2, 2012 at 6:40 pm
Since I am familiar with the ways of Msgr. Reilly and the Helpers of God's Precious Infants, I would say the landlord is lying!!!
Absolutely there is NO harrassing and screaming and 'you're going to hells' for that is not the means of the apostolate. I know because I have had training in it. We are there to show the face of Christ and to be a light in the demonic darkness and to love the babies, the mothers, and others. There is no screaming or harrassing or threats. Maybe it was the conscience, or what is left of one, that bothered the hired killers (abortionists) and made them uncomfortable to work there.
October 2, 2012 at 11:43 pm
Thank you, Magdalene! I have read these kind of accusations before and, in my experience, they are ridiculous. I have been in vigils at abortion clinics before and have been called names, given the finger and had objects thrown at me. My favorite was a woman who pulled her car over, with her young daughter in the car, and demanded to know if I was going to demand that young males be given condoms. I just said God Bless You as she pulled away from the curb. I have NEVER seen the people holding the vigils scream at nor call people names. They are respectful and quiet and often praying the rosary!
October 3, 2012 at 12:54 am
Back when my mom was more active with sidewalk counseling/clinic protests, we had one lady (some manner of Rapture-believing Protestant) who would occasionally do that, but we all eventually convinced her to stop coming.
October 3, 2012 at 6:52 am
There are a PROS and CONS in having an abortion clinic in the community. PROS: Women will not risk themselves having an abortion by them while the CONS: It violates the commandments of the Lord.
SummitMedicalCenters.com