‘No parking’ zone limits pro-lifers’ activity

Father Peter Ascik, parochial vicar of St. Matthew Church in Charlotte, prays March 22 in front of the Family Reproductive Health abortion facility on East Hebron Road in Charlotte. Father Ascik is leading the local effort of the national 40 Days For Life campaign at the parish this year. (SueAnn Howell | Catholic News Herald)CHARLOTTE — One of Charlotte’s three abortion facilities, Family Reproductive Health, sits in an industrial area just off South Boulevard. Its unassuming location at 700 East Hebron St. belies the fact that 1,500 to 2,000 abortions are committed there each year.

It’s not Charlotte’s busiest abortion facility – that’s A Preferred Women’s Health on Latrobe Drive, with more than 3,000 abortions each year – but the Hebron facility’s inconspicuous location is one reason why pro-life advocates are paying greater attention to it.

The location has no on-street parking along East Hebron Street and limited parking on Denmark Road – posing a challenge for pro-lifers to come out and publicly witness. Parking has been further restricted over the years, even on days when surrounding businesses are closed.

The challenges are growing, says one pro-lifer who has made it her mission to pray outside the Hebron facility as often as possible.

Francesca Sperrazzo, a parishioner of St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte, has been praying for years in front of Hebron, often alone. She is a member of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, a group committed to peaceful prayer in front of abortion facilities.

Sperrazzo has noticed that tensions have increased, because as the parking has become more limited, both pro-lifers and pro-abortion advocates vie for those limited number of spaces. People at the Hebron facility even call police when they suspect pro-lifers’ cars may be illegally parked, Sperrazzo said.

“They came out here with a measuring tape one day!” she said.

Another pro-life advocate who spends many hours witnessing outside the Hebron facility is Philip “Flip” Benham. The evangelical Christian minister and leader of Concord-based Operation Save America is not afraid to stoke controversy and get arrested in his efforts to draw attention to the Hebron facility.

Like on other days, on March 22, Benham was outside the Hebron facility clutching his Bible and standing by large signs featuring pro-life messages, hoping to speak to women as they went in for their abortions to encourage them to change their minds.

“Right now they have it where we can only park in front of those signs,” he said, gesturing to the corner of East Hebron Street and Denmark Road.

Benham laments the lack of parking outside the abortion facility. “They don’t want anyone parking there because they don’t want to make it easy for folks to come out here. And so you have to park about a quarter-mile down the road.”

Sperrazzo says she has repeatedly attempted to get Charlotte city officials to lift the restrictions against on-street parking in front of the Hebron abortion facility, but so far her efforts have been unsuccessful.

“On street parking is generally provided in areas where there is a demand for parking for residences and/or businesses that don’t have adequate parking on site. In this area, there is not a demonstrated need for on street parking,” explained Allison Naftel of Charlotte Department of Transportation in a written response to Sperrazzo’s recent request. “We must also consider the dangers that are associated with potential conflict for large vehicles and pedestrian crossing which outweighs the benefit for on street parking since none of the surrounding business have a need for overflow on street parking.”

“CDOT will not modify or remove the parking restrictions given an undemonstrated need for parking,” Naftel wrote.

The Hebron abortion facility’s largest neighbor sits just across the road: women’s fashion retailer Cato Corp. “No parking” signs are posted along the wide stretch of Denmark Road outside Cato’s corporate headquarters and distribution center.

It has been Sperrazzo’s experience that Cato’s security guards have kept a close eye on activity along Denmark Road and East Hebron Street. During one of her vigils, she said, they told pro-life advocates to move their cars from the no-parking zone or risk being towed.

“I can’t have the Helpers vigil there anymore,” she said. “That puts a damper on things. Local parishioners would rather go there. It’s closer to them,” she explained.

According to information from the city, Cato asked for the no-parking zone in front of their headquarters in 2015 to block “overnight parking and other semi parking that was resulting in potentially dangerous situations for staff that were crossing the street as well as sight distance issues for vehicles pulling out of the driveways due to vehicles parking along both sides of the roads.”

“We will not be removing parking restrictions in this area,” city official Lamar Williams told Sperrazzo in an email dated March 26, 2018.

Sperrazzo asked a nearby business owner for permission to use his parking lot for a Helpers vigil, but he declined, telling her that he “did not want to get involved in politics,” she said.
She presses on, continuing to advocate with the city and neighboring businesses for more parking, especially on Saturdays. In the meantime, she encourages people to park on Denmark Road where parking is permitted or carpool or walk the 0.1-mile distance to the facility.
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

‘Come and be a witness’

CHARLOTTE — Dressed in clerics and quietly praying his rosary, Father Peter Ascik exudes a calming presence in the midst of honking horns and jeers from abortion supporters at the entrance of Family Reproductive Health – one of Charlotte’s three abortion facilities.

This year the parochial vicar of St. Matthew Parish in Charlotte is spearheading the local 40 Days For Life campaign for the parish, which began Ash Wednesday and runs until April 14.

Week after week the priest drives over to the Hebron abortion facility, tucked away in an industrial part of the city just off South Boulevard, to pray for the women coming there that day to kill their unborn children. As chaplain for the parish’s Respect Life ministry, Father Ascik aims to set an example of prayerful witness on the front lines of the abortion battle at the Hebron Street facility and draw Catholics’ attention to the need to come out and pray – despite the sometimes daunting atmosphere.

Abortions take place every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday at Family Reproductive Health.

A tall wooden privacy fence cloaks the facility from public view. Its remote location and limited off-street parking mean fewer people tend to pray there than at Charlotte’s two other abortion facilities. Multiple escorts and pro-abortion advocates position themselves at the property’s entrance and along the sidewalk holding signs that read “Honk if You are Pro-Choice.”

Last Friday, as on previous days, Father Ascik stood quietly on the sidewalk outside the Hebron facility. Joining him were a few local parishioners who prayed with him while holding signs encouraging women to choose life for their unborn children.

It’s important for people to stand up for the sanctity of life in front of the abortion facility, he says.

“I am here to witness to the value of unborn babies who are brought here to be killed, and to reach out to their mothers and fathers who may be here too to offer them another choice,” he says, and “to testify to their value, as mothers and fathers – the value of their families. And hopefully to inspire them, and pray for them to help them make another choice than the terrible choice of abortion.”

Prayer has a definite impact, Father Ascik emphasizes.

“You do meet people who change their minds. Just a few weeks ago at this facility, after praying for several hours in the morning, a woman came back and she said to one of our volunteers, ‘It worked. We changed our minds.’”

People have come up to him and thanked him for praying, he says, people who were inside the abortion clinic on that very day who left after changing their minds. “And even if on that day the people don’t change their minds, we are here to pray for them, maybe for their conversion down the road.”

“We are here to pray for their unborn babies who die here so that someone noticed their death, that someone was there thinking about them and praying for them as well,” he adds.

Father Ascik encourages people to join the public, prayerful witness outside Charlotte’s abortion mills, especially the Hebron facility as it gets less attention.

“Come out here and see,” he says. “All you have to do is come and pray. Let the Holy Spirit lead you. Simply come and be a witness. You will see miracles. I have seen miracles.”