This gives a new meaning to the phrase “crotch shots,” but it’s not a pleasant change, as you’ll see in this video from Argentina.  Last week, pro-abortion activists marched on the cathedral in San Juan de Cuyo as Catholics surrounded the building in prayer to protect it from violence.  The protesters took out their rage on the faithful, spray-painting their faces and, er, aiming lower in some cases:

A graphic video from Argentina is making the rounds of the Internet today showing violent protests with pro-abortion activists attacking pro-life people praying at a Catholic Church.

The abortion activists attempted to storm the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista (John the Baptist) in Argentina late last month.

Taken in San Juan de Cuyo, Argentina sometime between November 23 and 25, the video shows, as described on YouTube, “feminists and their male peers bellow[ing] noisy and anti-Catholic slogans drawing through the city. In retaliation, 1500 young Catholics formed a human shield around the Cathedral to prevent about 7000 antagonists from storming the Archdiocesan Church.”

The video shows topless women spray painting the people praying — in their faces and putting Nazi swastikas on their clothing.

So where were the police? Oh, they were there … but the victims were the wrong gender, or something:

The police indicated they would not help the pro-life Catholics in front of the church because the protestors were women.

After watching the video, one might guess that the police were intimidated by the sheer size of the protest.  Clearly, they didn’t want to intervene on behalf of some people who were turning themselves into passive human shields to protect their place of worship. It’s not as if they had been taken by surprise, though, because this happens every year in Argentina for its National Meeting of Women, and a trek to defile the local cathedral is always on the agenda.

It happened last year in October:

Around 500 abortion activists in Posadas hurled insults, spat and threw paint on young Catholics who prayed the Rosary outside the local cathedral and prevented the demonstrators from entering.

The activists convened in the city Oct. 7 for the 27th National Meeting of Women in Argentina.

According to local media, the group march through the city, painting homes and streets with slogans in support of abortion and homosexual marriage as well as anti-Catholic slurs.

Some activists reportedly stripped naked, while others made sexual gestures at the young people standing in prayer outside the Cathedral of Posadas.

CNA also reported on it in 2009, when the route did get detoured away from the local cathedral:

The self-titled “National Meeting of Women,” which recently took place in Tucuman, Argentina, was not the exclusive domain of pro-abortion propaganda as in recent years, but this year was attended by a well-prepared group of women who spoke up in defense of life and against abortion.

In a report issued by the Christian Family Movement, analyst Eduardo Zavalia said the feminists who organized this event were shocked, as they had been accustomed to “doing and saying whatever they wanted and telling others what to say.” This year, he recounted, they were met with a group of women “firm in their values and large enough in numbers to be a majority in most of the workshops.”

“In some workshops, overcome by mere reason, abortion activists resorted to physically removing those who defended life,” the report said.

Even the usual violent and anti-Catholic march organized by abortion supporters was detoured this year in order to avoid passing in front of the cathedral where they usually harassed the faithful.

They weren’t so lucky in 2008:

A video posted on YouTube.com put on full display the ferocity of abortion supporters who were participating in the National Meeting of Women in the Argentinean city of Neuquen last August. It shows them harassing and insulting a group of Catholic young people who were standing outside the Cathedral of Neuquen to keep the church safe from the protests.

The National Meeting of Women is a feminist event that takes place each year to pressure authorities to legalize abortion and to promote reproductive rights and gender ideology.

Financed by anti-life NGOs and supported by the government of Argentinean president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the meeting brings together pro-abortion, feminist, homosexual and left-wing organizations.

The meeting usually ends with a protest through the streets of the host city, with organizers planning the route to include a stop at the local cathedral. This year, in order to keep protestors from trashing the cathedral grounds, a group of young people from Neuquen stood outside the cathedral to pray and form a barrier against the protestors.

That’s why the Catholics in the diocese were ready to protect their church. It’s not much of a mystery why the police weren’t prepared to protect them from these attacks, though, as the Kirchner government supports the thugs rather than the peaceful people they attack.