Pro-Life Man Brutally Assaulted Trying to Save Babies at Planned Parenthood

Vice President JD Vance wants the person responsible for knocking a woman unconscious during a violent street brawl in Cincinnati to be jailed “for a very long time.”

A now-viral video shows a man being repeatedly punched and kicked, and at one point a woman who has come to his aid is punched in the face twice, the second blow knocking her unconscious. Three people have been arrested in connection with the July 26 melee, charged with felonious assault and other alleged crimes.

“… one part that I saw that was really gruesome is you had a grown man who sucker punched a middle-aged woman,” Vance said when asked about the situation during a visit to Canton, Ohio. “Where I come from at least, when you have a grown man who sucker punches a middle-age woman that person ought to go to jail for a very long time.”

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But a pro-lifer waiting to learn the sentence of a man who brutally attacked him and another activist outside a Baltimore Planned Parenthood said he’ll be surprised if his assailant spends any time behind bars.

Patrick Brice, 28, of Baltimore, will be sentenced Aug. 7 after being convicted on misdemeanor charges of assaulting the two elderly pro-lifers in 2023. He could face up to 10 years in prison but having beaten two felony charges, one of his victims, Mark Crosby, said he doesn’t have high hopes that justice will be served.

In two trials, Brice was acquitted of first-degree assault charges for the attack that knocked then 84-year-old Dick Schaefer unconscious and left then-73-year-old Crosby with permanent vision and hearing loss. Brice was convicted of lesser charges: Two counts of second-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment, all misdemeanors.

Video that captured the attack from multiple angles show the moment Brice arrives, chatting with Planned Parenthood escorts and at one point shaking each of their hands. One of the escorts out front that day was a man pro-lifers know as Pinky, who moved to Georgia years before and hadn’t been seen again until that day. In fact, escorts had not been outside the facility in months before the attack, and have not been seen since outside since that day.

It’s unclear from the video who started speaking first but soon enough Brice was yelling at Schaefer. As Schaefer turned his back and walked away, Brice dropped the drink he was carrying and rushed at the pro-lifer, knocking him into a large concrete planter.

Then as Crosby tried to get to his fallen friend, Brice punched him to the ground, straddled his chest to continue punching him, then kicked him in the head while climbing off. Along the way he ripped off Crosby’s crucifix and threw it in the bushes.

Numerous witnesses saw the whole thing. Although most of the bystanders were Planned Parenthood escorts, one was a construction worker who is also clearly seen on video.

None of the witnesses were called to testify in either trial. According to Terrell Roberts III, an attorney hired by the pro-life Thomas More Society to be with Crosby, neither the Planned Parenthood escorts nor the construction worker were even interviewed by the police.

That’s one of several puzzling facts about the whole case. Here are some others:

• Why did it take police a full year to arrest Brice, who lives close to the Planned Parenthood and seemed to know the escorts?
• Why was he released on his own recognizance after being charged with such serious crimes, and after being convicted on misdemeanor charges?
• Why wasn’t the jury in the first trial allowed to see the gruesome photos that showed the extent of Crosby’s injuries?
• Why wasn’t Brice charged with a hate crime after pulling off Crosby’s crucifix?
• Why did his lawyer’s assertion that Brice didn’t intend to hurt the men hold such sway with the jury in the first trial, and the judge who oversaw both proceedings?

“We pro-lifers are considered to be the problem,” said longtime activist Missy Reilly Smith, who attended both trials. “We are considered the enemy. But the fact is, you don’t punch someone in the face three times without intent. Brice got down into a football stance to attack Dick Schaefer.”

Comparing Brice’s treatment to that of pro-lifers arrested during the Biden years lends credence to Ms. Smith’s view.

Pennsylvania pro-life activist Mark Houck was involved in a minor altercation with a Planned Parenthood escort who pushed Houck’s 11-year-old son outside a Philadelphia killing center in 2021. The escort never showed up for court and the matter was considered closed.

Until 11 months later, when two dozen heavily armed FBI agents swarmed Houck’s home and carried him off in handcuffs in front of his wife and seven terrified children. Houck was charged with violating the FACE Act but was acquitted at trial in 2023.

In October 2022, pro-lifer Paul Vaughn was arrested at gunpoint in front of his wife and children after the FBI turned up at their home to arrest him on a FACE violation for blocking the door of a Tennessee abortion business a year earlier. He was convicted at trial and sentenced to three years’ supervised release.

All of those arrested for a rescue at a Washington, D.C., abortion business were placed in custody after their arrests, and remanded to prison between their convictions and their eventual sentencing. Some are in their 70s. One had a stroke while in prison. By the time pro-lifer Lauren Handy was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison, she had already been behind bars for 10.

And yet Brice is home right now while awaiting sentencing for violent crimes.

All of the pro-lifers convicted after rescues in Virginia, Tennessee and D.C., were pardoned in January of this year by newly elected President Trump. But there will be no relief for Crosby, no pardon from the injuries whose effects he will feel – and see – for the rest of his life.

“JD Vance was right about that Cincinnati situation,” he said. “But what about Dick? What about me?”

LifeNews Note: Leslie Palma is the communications director for Priests for Life.

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