When forty-four pro-lifers were arrested April 22 for blocking the Morgentaler ‘clinic’ in Winnipeg, they added their names to the growing number of Canadians ready to face imprisonment for attempting to save the lives of innocent children.
After appearing before a magistrate in the Public Safety Building on charges of petty trespass and mischief, all forty-four were released on the promise to return to provincial court on May 4 when they were remanded to June 1.
Several dozen members of the grassroots rescue organization plugged the front and back entrances of the Croydon Ave. ‘clinic’ at about 6 a.m. These included three clergymen – Fr. Eugene Rudechek, a Ukrainian Catholic priest, Fr. Mike Kwiatkowski and Pastor Dan Rutherford of the non-denominational Church of the Way. Another 100 picketed and prayed on the sidewalk outside the abortuary. Police responded to a call from the ‘clinic’ staff shortly after 9 a.m., and finished making arrests by midday
Morgentaler’s ‘Clinic’ director Robbie Mahood minimized the rescue’s effect on the abortuary’s performance. No abortions were scheduled for that morning, he told the Sunday Free Press, but The Interim learned from a reliable source that organizers of the rescue knew abortion appointments had been made.
As police cleared away the last of the rescuers from the doors of the Morgentaler ‘clinic,’ pro-lifers were demonstrating at two other Winnipeg locations. About 300 pro-lifers organized by the Manitoba League for Life focused their attention on the Health Sciences Building – a medical facility that killed 3,200 children in 1988 alone.
“If this hospital will permit the killing of the youngest members of the human family because they are unwanted, inconvenient or an economic burden, how long will it be before others are killed for exactly the same reasons?” warned Pat Soenen, Executive Director of the League for Life.
After an hour of picketing several participants pushed on to the homes of Health Sciences Centre abortionist, Richard Boroditsky, and Robbie Mahood, abortionist at the Morgentaler ‘Clinic.’ This was the fifth consecutive week-end that Mahood’s home had been picketed and his wife, Iside Giuliani, had had enough. “They have forced us to explain things to our three children that they aren’t ready for,” she fumed.
