{"id":286471,"date":"2023-03-03T18:33:10","date_gmt":"2023-03-04T00:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=286471"},"modified":"2023-03-02T16:40:54","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T22:40:54","slug":"sidewalk-counselors-assaulted-two-incidents-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/sidewalk-counselors-assaulted-two-incidents-illinois\/","title":{"rendered":"Sidewalk counselors assaulted in two separate incidents in Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Coalition Life recently spoke with Live Action News about two separate incidents in which sidewalk counselors were assaulted or attacked in Illinois. Brian Westbrook, Executive Director of Coalition Life, said the violence against pro-life advocates has never been this high in the past.<\/p>\n

Fairview Heights<\/h3>\n

In November of 2022, Planned Parenthood abortionist James Hobby intentionally struck a Coalition Life sidewalk counselor with his car. “He was driving down the middle, and he could have just driven out into the street \u2014 but he didn’t,” Westbrook said. “He made a curve at the very end, directly towards our sidewalk counselor. He went right up to his legs, stopped his car, honked his horn at him. And my team member was just like, what the heck is going on here? He’s stopped his car, just to honk his horn at him, and then moved forward, knocked him over into a ditch.”<\/p>\n

\"Walgreens<\/a><\/p>\n

Video of the incident can be seen here<\/a>. The police report, provided to Live Action News, confirmed that Hobby was the driver of the vehicle, and after reviewing the video footage, the responding officer also confirmed that Hobby intentionally struck the sidewalk counselor with his car:<\/p>\n

The Subaru began to drive towards his location and he had a pamphlet, which he hands out to vehicles as they leave the business. The Subaru driver honked the horn and drove up next to him. The driver then swerved at him, which struck him and caused him to fall to his knees.<\/em><\/p>\n

Flossmoor, Illinois<\/h3>\n

In January, Coalition Life team members were counseling abortion-minded women outside a Planned Parenthood facility. “As the two of them were working, one of the Planned Parenthood escorts came over and shoved [a female sidewalk counselor],” Westbrook told Live Action News. “He first and foremost hip-checked her, and then pushed her nearly to the ground. It was completely unprovoked. She did not say anything, yell at him, anything.”<\/p>\n

Police were called to the scene, even though they typically try not to involve authorities.<\/p>\n

“We deal with a lot of abuse without police officers,” Westbrook said. “But the police were called. They showed up, the escort lied to the police and said she ran into him and pushed him, and we showed him the videotape showing otherwise. The police report says no, you [the escort] were obviously the one at fault here.”<\/p>\n

The police report was provided to Live Action News, which stated that Paul Noble \u2014 the Planned Parenthood escort \u2014 had been given a citation for battery. A court date for that charge is upcoming.<\/p>\n