Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:24 EST
New York City’s oldest and largest abortion clinic stops abortions due to pro-life protests
BY Jill Stanek
With the autumn 40 Days for Life campaign just underway, this great news provides more evidence that sustained pro-life presence in front of abortion clinics hurts business, whether we think so at the time or not.
From New York Daily News, October 1, comes this article, the title and subtitle of which provides pretty much all the information you need to know: “Sunset Park clinic will no longer offer abortions, instead only outpatient surgical care: Protesters drove away doctors and patients, says clinic owner”:
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….
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….
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….
Julie Kashner, president of the Brooklyn and Queens chapter of the National Organization for Women… added there are others dealing with the same problem. NOW has planned a rally in support of another medical center offering abortions in Jamaica, Queens also struggling to find doctors and patients.
This clinic was apparently a very big, deadly fish. According to The Tablet:
“This was the oldest and largest abortion clinic in New York City and for many years, in the United States,” said Msgr. Reilly. “I believe more than a quarter of a million unborn children lost their lives there.”
[HT: Sean on Facebook; photo of Msgr Phillip Reilly, left, and Fr Kevin Sweeney, right, via New York Daily News]
Reprinted with permission from JillStanek.com
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Here's what the Tablet posted:
Msgr. Philip Reilly and the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants have stopped praying outside the Brooklyn Ambulatory Surgery Center in Sunset Park. For the past 22 years, the priest and his devoted group of pray-ers have been seeking an end to abortion at the Brooklyn site. Their prayers have been heard. The new owners of the building have explained that abortion will no longer be offered at the site when it reopens as the New York Center for Specialty Surgery.
To show their good will to the community, the new owners have invited Msgr. Reilly and Father Kevin Sweeney, pastor of nearby St. Michael’s Church, to bless the new facility, which they will do on Saturday, Sept. 29, following the 9 a.m. Mass at St. Michael’s.
“It’s like a miracle!” says Father Sweeney, who has been praying with the Helpers since he was a seminarian. He announced the news to his congregation at a Sunday Mass to thunderous applause. Parishioners from St. Michael’s have been among the steady, dedicated volunteers who have been standing outside the building at Third Ave. and 43rd St., praying and offering alternatives to distressed mothers and fathers.
“This was the oldest and largest abortion clinic in New York City and for many years, in the United States,” said Msgr. Reilly. “I believe more than a quarter of a million unborn children lost their lives there.”
Msgr. Reilly and the Helpers were accompanied by then-newly appointed Bishop Thomas V. Daily in the summer of 1990 when they first prayed at the site. They were met by a vicious band of pro-abortion supporters who tried to drown out their prayers and hymns of praise. For years, the pro-aborts continued to harass the Helpers during their monthly Rosary vigils there. Mostly young, they would blow whistles and hurl obscenities at the Helpers who held their ground as they prayed. The N.Y.C. Police always were on hand to assure safety and maintain peace.
Bishop Daily would tell the Helpers to obey the law and not to respond to the hecklers. After the recitation of the Rosary, the Helpers would process back to St.Michael’s for benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
“The Helpers are present outside of abortion clinics not simply to save babies but to save souls,” reminds Msgr. Reilly. “Indeed the Helpers are present not simply to witness to the truth but to convert people to the truth and change hearts. After so many years of good lay people, religious, priests and bishops praying and fasting outside of the Ambulatory abortion clinic … after so many years of dedicated laypeople offering help by sidewalk counseling to the pregnant women entering the clinic, the Lord has granted a complete victory.”
“I am pleased to confirm that the new center at 313 43rd Ave. in Brooklyn is opening as a multi-specialty surgery center to include outpatient surgical procedures. The center will no longer provide abortion services,” says Julia Ferguson, East Coast director of operations for Medical Forefronts, which will run the new center.
Fittingly, Sept. 29, when the new surgery center will be blessed, is also the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. The parish will be twice blessed on that day — once in the morning at the blessing ceremony and again later in the afternoon when Auxiliary Bishop Frank Caggiano visits to celebrate the patronal feast day. Truly it will be a day that the Lord will have made and everyone will have a reason to rejoice.
