Portland Catholic Church vandalized with pro-abortion graffiti
A Portland Catholic Church was vandalized with pro-abortion graffiti over the weekend, marking the latest example of attacks directed at churches over abortion.
Andy Ngo, a senior editor at The Post Millennial, shared a post on X Sunday with pictures of vandalism at a Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon. “Those attending mass this morning at St. Patrick’s Church in northwest Portland, Ore. arrived to find it had been vandalized again with a pro-abortion message,” he said.
The images shared by Ngo documented graffiti on the doors of the church reading “F--- U” and “My body my choice.” An almost identical message was spray-painted on the ground at the exterior of the church, although the word “you” was written out.
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Noting that “the door is still stain-bleached of a removed hateful message,” Ngo added, “Multiple Christian houses of worship have been attacked in Portland since 2020 by far-left extremists but the left-wing leadership [district attorney] and law enforcement do not treat them as bias crimes.”
He also said the “photo source wants to remain anonymous.”
As Ngo highlighted in his X post, attacks on churches in Portland have become a common occurrence since 2020 although vandalism of houses of worship nationwide accelerated following the publication of the U.S. Supreme Court’s leaked draft decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022. The draft decision showed that the justices were poised to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
The vandalism directed at churches continued after the Supreme Court handed down the official Dobbs decision overruling Roe and determining that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion. An image shared on social media in July 2022 reveals that St. Patrick’s was one of the churches targeted by pro-abortion vandals in the immediate aftermath of the Dobbs decision.
In 2022, the graffiti on the wooden doors at the front of the church read “My body my choice” while the words “F--- you” were written on both of the walls adjacent to the doors. The message contained in the graffiti at St. Patrick’s in 2022 and 2024 suggests that in both cases, the vandals had a pro-abortion motive.
Even before the Dobbs decision was on the horizon, St. Patrick’s found itself subject to vandalism. According to a 2021 report published in the National Catholic Reporter, “In June, vandals lit fires and wrote graffiti on the grounds at St. Patrick Church in Northwest Portland; a month later additional graffiti appeared on the historic church’s wooden front doors.”
The National Catholic Reporter illustrated how several other Catholic churches in Portland fell victim to vandalism in the same time period, specifically St. Andrew’s, St. Francis of Assisi and Holy Redeemer.
A spreadsheet compiled by the advocacy group CatholicVote that's keeping track of all acts of vandalism directed at Catholic churches in the U.S. since 2020 lists attacks on St. Mary’s Cathedral in February 2021, All Saints Catholic Church in June 2022, the Archdiocese of Portland Office in July 2022, Holy Family Catholic Church in November 2023 and the Grotto Monastery in February 2024 as additional instances where Portland Catholic churches were targeted.
With the exception of the attack on St. Mary’s Cathedral and the incident at the Grotto Monastery, no arrests were recorded in the spreadsheet. The Family Research Council included a fire at a vacant Korean church in Portland on its list of acts of vandalism directed at churches in the first three months of 2023.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a report earlier this year that identified “attacks on houses of worship” as the “largest threat to religious liberty in 2024.” The body of bishops’ Committee on Religious Liberty warned that “There is no greater threat to religious liberty than for one’s house of worship to become a place of danger, and the country sadly finds itself in a place where that danger is real.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
