PRESS RELEASE

On Friday, March 1, 2024, a peaceful and lawfully conducted prayer gathering organized by "40 Days for Life" outside the pro familia (IPPF) center in Frankfurt am Main was severely disrupted by approximately 20 individuals from the far-left milieu during the recitation of the Rosary, and the participants were threatened and insulted.

The small group of praying individuals was located within the area assigned to them by the City of Frankfurt's regulatory office for this gathering, meaning at a safe distance of approximately 30-35 meters from the pro familia (IPPF) counseling center at Frankfurt's Palmengarten. This ensures that the counseling center for pregnant women remains freely accessible, meaning that pregnant women do not have to pass by the praying individuals to access the counseling center and there is no direct contact.

Although this arrangement reconciles the assembly rights of the participants and the privacy of pregnant women visiting the counseling center in a proportional and lawful manner, as required by the courts¹, neither the abortion lobby (pro familia or IPPF) nor their sympathetic political elites are willing to accept this constitutional solution and legal situation².

Repeatedly, these circles falsely claim, without being able to provide evidence, that praying individuals near a counseling center pose a danger to pregnant women³. In reality, these praying individuals pose no threat, but rather attempts are made to silence them because they dare to advocate for the constitutionally guaranteed right to life of conceived and unborn children through public prayer⁴. It is the public Christian testimony for life that the abortion lobby and its sympathetic political elites evidently have a problem with.

They want to silence the Christian conscience that reminds us of the divine commandment "Thou shalt not kill". It is therefore particularly important to understand that the individuals praying near counseling centers or abortion facilities behave completely peacefully and lawfully. However, their opponents resort to violence, coercion, threats, and intimidation against individuals and property, in addition to misleading media campaigns, to achieve their goals⁵.

On the international World Day of Prayer for Peace, which was last Friday (March, 1 , 2024), unpleasant scenes unfolded once again in Frankfurt am Main as a group of praying individuals was severely disrupted and threatened by a group of about 20 extremists.

Despite threats of physical violence, the prayer gathering refused to disperse, and even after the police were called, they did not arrive for 10 minutes. Some of the disruptors then began to approach the participants of the prayer gathering, shouting in their faces, harassing, mocking, insulting, provoking, and intimidating them with aggressive behavior, including wearing hoods pulled over their heads. While the prayer participants remained steadfast in prayer, holding their rosaries, the disruptors brought trash bins, e-scooters, and massive wooden pallets from a nearby construction site, piling them up at eye level in close proximity to the praying individuals, to further express their threats and coerce the participants of the vigil to leave their location.

This aggressive behavior particularly intimidated and threatened the female participants of the prayer gathering, who eventually slowly retreated. At least one of the attackers was already known to a participant of the vigil, as he had exposed himself during a vigil at the same location in the fall of 2023 in front of several female participants and a child, showing his bare buttocks.

Prayer participants in Frankfurt

Despite multiple emergency calls placed immediately after the disturbances began, it took the police - who had previously acted professionally - about 20 minutes to arrive. Upon seeing the police, the disruptors backed away from the praying individuals and dispersed, but then regrouped in front of the pro familia entrance. Instead of clarifying the situation and taking necessary police action against the disruptors and suspects, the victims were reprimanded and asked to remove the barricades by the police.

Meanwhile, the suspects who remained nearby were allowed to continue their disruptive performance and loud music as if nothing had happened. Although suspicion of coercion, threats, incitement to hatred, insult, property damage, theft, and disruption and obstruction of a non-prohibited assembly arose, several witnesses were present and video recordings were available, the arriving police officers refused, even after repeated polite requests from the responsible assembly leader, to file a criminal complaint or record the personal details of the disruptors and suspects still nearby. With witness statements and video recordings, it would have been easy to promptly identify the suspects, record their personal details, and initiate necessary legal measures.

However, this was bluntly refused by the police, among other reasons, with the absurd justification that the assembly leader had insufficient knowledge of German. The police especially declined to speak with a lawyer who had been spontaneously connected by phone, stating that if the lawyer wanted something, he should come in person. At least one participant of the prayer gathering reported experiencing great fear and panic during the attack, which was further exacerbated when she realized that the police were not listening to her.

We condemn this cowardly act of aggression and intolerance against a peaceful and lawfully conducted Christian prayer gathering and call on the authorities to thoroughly investigate these incidents and sanction the perpetrators.

Frankfurt am Main, March 3, 2024
Tomislav Čunović, Attorney at Law, Executive Director 40 Days for Life International

NOTES

1.- A lawsuit against restrictions on freedom of assembly before the pro familia advice center in Frankfurt was successful, https://verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeit.hessen.de/presse/40-taegige-gebetswache ; Prayer vigils may take place opposite the pro familia advice center, https://verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeit.hessen.de/presse/40-taegige-gebetswache-0

2.- 40-day meeting for the protection of unborn life in front of a counseling center permitted, https://www.bverwg.de/de/230523B6B33.22.0 

3.- German gov’t moves to restrict pro-life activism in front of abortion facilities, https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/german-govt-plans-to-restrict-pro-life-activism-in-front-of-abortion-facilities/ 

4.- Our answer is peaceful prayer, https://40daysforlifeinternational.com/de/jm/sec/nachricht/id/unsere-antwort-ist-das-friedliche-gebet 

5.- Three left-wing extremist attacks on Christian life rights activists, https://www.idea.de/spektrum/drei-linksextreme-angriffe-auf-christliche-lebensrechtler 

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