BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Four young, pink-vested women stood vigil Saturday, Jan. 13, outside the building that houses Planned Parenthood offices on Court Street near Borough Hall. 

The backs of three vests read, “Health Center Escort, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York.” The fourth vest was unmarked and a different shade of pink. Wearing it was a woman who, it soon became clear, was not a member of the pro-abortion group. 

Bernadette Patel is a sidewalk counselor who belongs to several pro-life groups, including the dozen people reciting the rosary outside this building. They were members of the Witness for Life: Brooklyn, which prays at this spot the second Saturday morning of each month. 

Women of all ages passed by and applauded the escorts. Some placed hands over their own hearts and thanked Planned Parenthood for its work. Another woman offered fist bumps.

But no such love was offered to the Witness for Life members. 

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As an older couple passed, the woman cheerily praised the escorts while the man growled, “Go F_ _ _ yourself” to the pro-lifers. 

Witness for Life’s Brooklyn group began in the summer of 2021. 

Its members come from parishes throughout the Diocese of Brooklyn. 

While it meets only once a month, other groups in the organization pray the rosary on the other Saturdays outside Planned Parenthood offices. So, these rosary events happen each Saturday in all other New York City boroughs except Queens.

On Jan. 13, the Brooklyn group began the morning with an 8 a.m. Mass at St. Charles Borromeo Church on Sidney Place, a few blocks away from the office building on Court Street. 

Father Eamon Murray celebrated the Mass and served as chaplain to the group on this damp, chilly Saturday. The priest is from Ireland and serves as associate pastor for Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Red Hook.

After Mass, the group stepped quickly to Court Street where the women in pink vests had already deployed. 

The rosary reciters and the escorts treated each other civilly. When asked for comments, the escorts declined to be interviewed.

Women of all ethnicities and various ages came to the building. As they approached, the Planned Parenthood escorts rushed alongside to accompany them up the front steps and through the door. 

Patel also sprang forward, offering leaflets with information about abortion alternatives. A few women accepted the materials, but most declined.

No other groups came to pray or counterprotest this Saturday morning. Such was not the case at the rosary group’s first procession on July 10, 2021. 

“We had really bad protesters,” Patel said. “A group would try to block us from walking here, so the police got involved. But I think they’ve gotten used to us here.

“They see we’re peaceful.” 

Omar Castro, a parishioner of St. Mark’s in Sheepshead Bay, regularly attends the witness events in Brooklyn and sometimes in other boroughs. He said Manhattan events often draw a lot of amped-up pro-abortion supporters. Tensions can rise quickly, he noted.

“That was the worst,” Castro said. “But if we have any worry, any apprehension, we should not be here. We’re not here to stir trouble with anyone. We’re not here to protest anybody. We’re just here to pray, to bring Christ’s presence among the people.”

Father Murray said the group expects vitriol, but it can be disheartening to see impromptu praise for abortion, and nothing for babies in the womb. 

“If you have love for God, you love his children, and you love the unborn,” Father Murray said. “But people don’t know the Lord. They don’t have faith. And, above all, they don’t have love in their hearts.” 

He said the once-a-month rosaries are also recited for the pro-abortion supporters. 

“We do what we can, and we pray for them, that God would have mercy on them,” Father Murray said. “And, hopefully, in some way, some can be saved.”