Director of Vandalized Crisis Pregnancy Center Speaks Out about City Leader’s ‘Silence’
Kristi Brown, executive director of a crisis pregnancy center in Asheville, North Carolina that was vandalized in June of 2022 by a group of abortion extremists, recently told Fox News that politicians, like city and county leaders, still have not spoken up about the crimes committed last summer.
“From the day of the attack to today, I haven’t had anyone [in leadership] just call me and say, ‘I’m sorry, we hate this happened in our town,’” Brown said on behalf of the Mountain Area Pregnancy Services (MAPS). Although she does not feel the support of political leaders, Brown alluded to support that “came from various people across the U.S.” like “local churches and local ministry supporters.”
In response to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization draft opinion that was leaked in May 2022, a “militant, extremist, abortion rights group” called Jane’s Revenge jumped into action last summer. In one week, “the number of attacks on pro-life groups and individuals ticked up to 51” as pregnancy centers were vandalized and attacked. Since the opinion that eventually overturned Roe v. Wade was leaked, there have been at least 87 pregnancy centers and pro-life groups that have been attacked or vandalized, according to a tracker by Catholic Vote. Even after all the destruction caused by Jane’s Revenge, Brown shared that political leaders still have not addressed the attacks.
“If there were 87 organizations that had common ties, and it was anything other than being pro-life, I think we would hear political leaders speak out,” said Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.
When the extremist group targeted the pregnancy center that Brown oversees in Asheville, they left broken windows and red-lettered graffiti messages. On the front sidewalk, the group had written, “If abortions aren’t safe, neither are you!” They also drew an anarchist symbol, which means “no forced births.” On another of the building’s walls, they left that same message written out. It took the center six months to clean up the damage.
Despite the silence from political leaders, Brown addressed the support from law enforcement officers in the surrounding area. According to Fox, MAPS paid the police department to keep watch over their building for a month following the attack.
“To this day, they pop in our parking lot,” Brown told Fox. She added that if she sees them outside, she will offer them a water bottle or invite them in.
“I think this says a lot about the recognition of the good that the pregnancy center does in the community, and in a lot of ways, their mission aligns with that of law enforcement: to protect the innocent from violence,” Szoch said. “It makes sense that those who enter the [law enforcement] field want to defend and protect those who are protecting innocent unborn lives in the womb.”
The investigation into the attack on MAPS was closed in the fall, with zero arrests as a result.
“I was not expecting anything from the city or county other than law enforcement engagement; it wasn’t like I tried to get something that I could not get through all that process,” Brown concluded. “But silence, in my opinion, speaks volumes.”
