Overland Park Catholic church advocating for Value Them Both abortion vote is vandalized

Anna Spoerre

A Johnson County Catholic church, which has advocated for removing the right to abortion from the Kansas constitution, was vandalized Sunday.

“My body my choice” was written in red paint across Ascension Catholic School, which adjoins the church in Overland Park, along with the words, “F--- your dirty $.” A statue of the Virgin Mary was also splattered with red paint.

On Aug. 2, Kansas will be the first state in the country to hold a referendum on abortion rights following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

The amendment on the August primary ballot would overturn a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that found a right to abortion in the state constitution. If passed, it would give state lawmakers the ability to restrict abortion or ban the procedure completely.

A man cleaned red paint sprayed across the entry of Ascension Catholic School in Overland Park, which is adjacent to Church of the Ascension on Sunday, July 10, 2022. The Church is at the forefront for Value Them Both campaign, which if passed on Aug. 2, would remove the right to abortion from the Kansas constitution.
A man cleaned red paint sprayed across the entry of Ascension Catholic School in Overland Park, which is adjacent to Church of the Ascension on Sunday, July 10, 2022. The Church is at the forefront for Value Them Both campaign, which if passed on Aug. 2, would remove the right to abortion from the Kansas constitution.

The Church of the Ascension has been at the forefront of local fundraising and campaigning for Kansans to vote yes on Aug. 2.

More than half the money the Value Them Both PAC raised last year came from churches, The Star reported last month. The Kansas City, Kansas, diocese gave $500,000, and The Ascension Catholic Church donated $10,600.

Archbishop Joseph Fred Naumann, the head of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, said he viewed the vandalism as an “obvious” response to the donations Ascension has made to the Value Them Both campaign.

Parishioner Sean Doherty cleans splatters of red paint from a statue of the Virgin Mary on Sunday, July 10, 2022, outside of Ascension Catholic School in Overland Park. The school is adjacent to The Church of the Ascension is at the forefront for Value Them Both campaign, which if passed on Aug. 2, would remove the right to abortion from the Kansas constitution. Caption

“It’s just not American to try and intimidate others by these kinds of acts of vandalism and theft, and it’s not going to intimidate us. It’s going to motivate us,” Naumann said Sunday afternoon.

He added that while this is the first time that church was vandalized, parishioners in the diocese have also had “vote yes” signs stolen and defaced.

The archdiocese in a statement Sunday called it an “overt act of hatred and incivility.”

“We try to respect the people that disagree with us. Everybody’s made in the divine image and they have a right to speak, but these type of things are unacceptable,” Naumann added.

The damage was reported to police Sunday, Naumann said. A spokesperson with the Overland Park Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

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