Two elderly pro-life advocates were reportedly attacked by an unidentified male in front of a Planned Parenthood in Baltimore, Maryland, on Friday, leaving one victim hospitalized for a fractured bone in his face.
Local pro-lifer John Roswell told Lifesite News in an email that pro-life advocates Dick Schafer, 80, and Mark Crosby, 73, were assaulted and seriously injured outside the abortion facility on N. Howard Street in Baltimore in an unprovoked attack last week.
Schafer reportedly has been recovering at home while Crosby is currently receiving treatment for his injuries in the shock trauma facility at the University of Maryland. According to a police report, doctors diagnosed Crosby with a large hematoma, hyphemia, and head and neck pain.
Crosby’s “plate bone in his upper right cheek is completely fractured” and “is bleeding from some unidentified area behind his eye, and the bone eye orbit is completely shattered and will have to be replaced with metal,” Roswell said.
The attack left Crosby’s right eye swollen shut with blood dripping from his eye socket, forehead, and nose.
According to Roswell, the assailant asked Planned Parenthood “deathscorts” to hold his drink before attacking Schafer, who reportedly had his back turned away from the person at the time of the assault.
At that point, Crosby attempted to assist Schafer, but was hit in the face and “slammed” against the glass of the building, knocking him to the ground and toppling a ceramic planter in the process. The suspect then proceeded to kick Crosby in the head.
Roswell said a nurse from a nearby pro-life pregnancy center rushed over to aid the men after a client “screamed” upon witnessing the attack.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP
Baltimore City Police said investigators obtained video footage of the incident showing the suspect as a white male with brown hair and a full beard, wearing a gray T-shirt, blue jeans, and brown shoes, The Daily Signal reported.
Authorities said the suspect could be seen passing Crosby and Schafer before turning around and “having a visibly aggressive conversation” with the 80-year-old victim, CBS reported.
A witness told police the attack began with a debate over abortion rights, saying the suspect “did not yell or use obscenities, but that the suspect did talk in a loud manner to get his points across.”
Dr. Jay Walton, president of Baltimore County Right to Life, created a GoFundMe page asking for prayer for Crosby and support to help pay for medical expenses.
“For years, Mark has prayed in front of the Planned Parenthood in Baltimore City to let the scared, young abortion-minded women know that they are loved, that their baby is loved,” Walton said on the website.
Walton called on Democratic Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Democratic Maryland Governor Wes Moore to denounce the attack and treat it as a hate crime in a statement reported by The Daily Signal.
“Their silence on this attack will continue to put pro-lifers in danger throughout the state of Maryland,” Walton said.
Since the draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked in early May 2022 and the subsequent proliferation of state abortion bans, pregnancy resource centers and pro-life groups have been attacked and vandalized.
Arielle Del Turco, director for the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., told Congress earlier this month that 420 incidents occurred in 45 states and Washington, D.C., between January 2018 and September 2022, including 342 occurrences of vandalism, 58 arson attacks or attempts, 12 gun-related incidents, 11 bomb threats, and 19 other incidences involving assault, threats, and interruption of worship services.
In April, the center reported an additional 54 incidents in the final months of 2022, and 69 in the first quarter of 2023.