Former abortion clinic now a house for pro-life causes
Ceremonies were held to rededicate 827 Webster St.
   K.E. Casey, kcasey@news-sentinel.com
Published: May 21, 2007
Outside a former abortion clinic at 827 Webster St. on Saturday morning, about 30 people waited for ceremonies to rededicate the building for pro-life causes. Pastor Wendell Brane of Trinity Evangelical Church stepped onto the sidewalk and motioned his arm at the ground. “There’s an injunction here,” he announced. “You guys are going to have to move.” He smiled, and the crowd laughed. “It’s my injunction now,” responded Bryan Brown, walking up to greet him. In 1990, U.S. District Judge William Lee issued an injunction that kept pro-life demonstrators from moving closer than 25 feet to the clinic, according to News-Sentinel archives. The address had been a battleground for pro-life and pro-choice causes in the late 1980s into the 1990s. Brane and Brown led demonstrations and civil disobedience there. The News-Sentinel reported last week that Brown and his group, the Donegal Corridor, purchased the building and plan to convert it for pro-life causes. Brown coordinated the Saturday morning inter-faith ceremonies, which included an Orthodox exorcism, a Catholic blessing and an evangelical dedication of the site where about 700 abortions were performed each year between 1978 and 2006. Saturday’s group was different from a May morning on Webster Street in 1992, when more than 50 city and county police officers separated a crowd of more than 250 pro-life demonstrators on one side of the street from pro-choice advocates on the other, according to News-Sentinel archives. During ceremony preparations, Father David Meinzen of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church of Crescent Avenue said the rite of exorcism has been exaggerated in popular culture. In the Orthodox Church, exorcisms don’t always assume demonic possession. He said the rite can be performed as protection against further attacks from evil and “wherever we believe evil has been working.” Four Knights of Columbus members stood behind Meinzen and Deacon Mike Myers also of St. Nicholas, as they intoned the Orthodox rite. Incense filled the cool morning air, and when Meinzen began to recite the Lord’s Prayer, it spread to the crowd, and the voices competed with the drone of cars on Washington and Jefferson boulevards. Meinzen made a crossing motion with a scepter of holy water before leading the procession through the building. Inside the house, the voices of Meinzen and Myers continued the ritual. Outside, a bagpiper played “Amazing Grace.” Pro-life activist Frank Avilla and Brane spoke to the crowd. Brane lauded the day’s success, but said the “horrid stench” of abortion “still rises” in the city. Outside, a few people stopped to watch the ceremonies. “Instead of going forward in life, we’re going backward,” said Brenda Wilson, who disapproved of the ceremonies. “They’re not offering jobs or financial support” for women considering whether to continue a pregnancy, she said. After the ceremonies, organizers opened the building to the public as a second bagpiper played outside. Inside the building, a long table pushed against the wall was covered in newspaper clippings describing protests at the site.
Illustration: PHOTO (2)
Caption:Pastor Wendell Brane of Trinity Evangelical Church speaks to the assembled crowd during a ceremony at the former abortion clinic at 827 Webster St. He is flanked by the Knights of Columbus. During the ceremonies, two bagpipers played “Amazing Grace.” Photo By K.E. Casey of The News-Sentinel Longtime pro-life activist and former Fort Wayne resident Father George Gabet of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter speaks to the assembled crowd after blessing the former abortion clinic at 827 Webster St.

Copyright (c) 2007 The News-Sentinel

Ecumenical Religious Ceremonies to Take Place at
Former Abortion Clinic Site on May 19

Former Abortion Clinic Redeemed One of Fort Wayne’s most notorious addresses, 827 Webster Street, will be the subject of an ecumenical redemptive act on Saturday morning, May 19.

Feminist leader Susan Hill oversaw an estimated 24,000 abortions from this site between the years 1978-2006. Because of that, an Orthodox Church exorcism, Roman Catholic blessing and Evangelical dedication service will take place at the same location on Saturday morning, May 19, 2007.

The building at 827 Webster Street, located a mere 100 yards from the newly remodeled Allen County Public Library and directly across the street from Fort Wayne’s historic First Presbyterian Church, served as NorthEast Indiana’s sole abortuary for almost 30 years.

Susan Hill opened the clinic at 827 Webster Street as one of what was to eventually become ten “franchise” sites of the National Women’s Health Organization in numerous states. With demand for abortion waning, her for-profit, child killing business has fallen on hard times. Susan Hill is no longer affiliated with the Fort Wayne clinic, and now can claim only five clinics in her franchised operation.

The clinic at 827 Webster Street opened with great controversy in 1978. Susan Hill filed litigation against the City of Fort Wayne to locate her mill in a community that did not welcome the grisly “business.” See FORT WAYNE WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION, INC. V. CITY OF FORT WAYNE, 1978. (CASE # F78-31)

A year after opening, the Fort Wayne clinic sued seven nurses who did nothing more than offer alternative to abortion on the sidewalks surrounding the clinic. Highly-respected Fort Wayne resident Phyllis Avila, the President of Nurses Concerned for Life, was one of those nurses. Many, including her widowed husband Frank, have credited this baseless, pro-abortion and frivolous lawsuit for hastening Phyllis’ untimely death. See FORT WAYNE WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION, INC., ET. AL V. NURSES CONCERNED FOR LIFE ET AL, 1979. (CASE # F-79-9)

A decade later, the good people of Northeast Indiana rose up by the thousands in an ecumenical and unified attempt to warn their neighbors of the great danger inherent in abortion and to protect their friends, the volunteer sidewalk counselors, from more baseless litigation and continued disruptive harassment at the hands of the pro-abortion activists who routinely gathered outside the abortion clinic. This populist, pro-life movement calling itself NorthEast Indiana Rescue was crushed by the National Organization of Women’s legal team led by Susan Hill. See FORT WAYNE WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION, INC., ULRICH KLOPFER, M.D., & JANE DOE V. WENDELL BRANE, BRYAN J. BROWN, NORTHEAST INDIANA RESCUE ET AL., 1990. (CASE # F90-66)

Sixteen years after the lawsuit against Northeast Indiana Rescue was filed, a pro-life entity calling itself the Donegal Corridor has purchased the building and announced plans to locate an Institute in the building dedicated to advancing the Culture of Life.

The May 19 event is the second step in the plan to redeem this former holocaust site.

Following these liturgical events, the former abortion clinic will be open for silent and prayerful walkthroughs. The interior of the building remains as it was the day the former occupants abandoned it for their new facility off of State Street. All persons of good will are encouraged to visit the site and pray for those who suffered due to its twenty-eight year presence on Webster Street.

The former clinic will remain open for silent walkthroughs until 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 19. Representatives of the Donegal Corridor will be on hand to discuss their vision for the future use of the building at 827 Webster Street.

All persons of goodwill are invited to take part in some or all of the ecumenical service at 827 Webster Street on Saturday, May 19.