WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — This week, police dropped charges against the two pro-life activists arrested for attempting to chalk the message “Black Preborn Lives Matter” outside a Washington, D.C. abortion business.
Warner DePriest and Erica Caporaletti of Students for Life of America (SFLA) were arrested by D.C. police outside the Planned Parenthood megacenter on the morning of Saturday, August 1, 2020.
SFLA had a permit and had communicated with the City of Washington, D.C. about the group’s plans to paint the street. Their initiative followed the city’s decision to allow a private organization to paint on the street a message in support of defunding the police. SFLA was asked to use tempera paint and had planned to do so.
Both DePriest, a D.C. resident, and Caporaletti, a student at Maryland’s Towson University, have now been officially cleared of all wrongdoing.
“It’s a relief to finally have this matter closed,” DePriest, a philanthropy adviser with SFLA, said in a press release.
“As a student of our political system, I believed then and I believe now that all Americans should have the right to speak up for the preborn and their mothers,” he continued.
“Almost every week, I pray outside the Planned Parenthood where I was arrested for the hope that lives will be saved. and because I can’t be silent on the human rights atrocity of our day.”
Michael New, the Catholic University of America faculty member who coordinates sidewalk counseling efforts outside the DC Planned Parenthood, was pleased that the charges were dropped.
“Charges should clearly have never been filed in the first place,” New said in the press release.
“People should not have to fear arrest for espousing pro-life views in public.”
DePriest also was arrested in August 2020 for his pro-life activism. That arrest was reported by The Washington Post and Fox News. DePriest also appeared on the Tucker Carlson Show on August 3, 2020. He continues to assist with sidewalk counseling outside the DC Planned Parenthood.