A six-foot-one University of Iowa graduate student from Hong Kong has admitted to punching 78-year-old pro-life advocate Donna Holman on Wednesday morning. Holman was holding an anti-abortion sign near a Planned Parenthood office in Iowa City, hoping to steer mothers away from infanticide when she was struck in the back by Man Chun John Ma.

Donna and her husband, Dan, have learned to have walkie talkies on-hand when protesting abortion. In an interview with TheBlaze, Dan said that he and his wife have been attacked several times by abortion supporters.

Donna was wearing a shirt that said “Planned Parenthood Murders 333,964 Babies Per Year!” and held a sign that had a picture of an aborted baby on it when she was attacked. The 78-year old woman said that it felt like Ma had hit her with his backpack, but the graduate student admitted to the police that he had punched her. When her husband confronted him, Ma admitted that he thought his actions were “probably wrong.” Dan asked Ma why he had attacked his wife, but before he got an answer, the officer on duty pulled him aside.

The policeman told him that while he agreed with the Holmans’ stance on abortion, he did not support their strategy. “You and I both know why he did it, he doesn’t like the sign - I personally don’t like the sign,” he said - “You are looking to provoke an extreme reaction with that … I think you know why it’s offensive to people, it’s meant to be.”

A punch in the back, however, is not the reaction that the Holmans were hoping to receive – “[The sign is] meant to draw attention to the babies that are being murdered over here today,” Dan said to the officer. His wife Donna had been attacked earlier this month as well, when 26-year-old William Carl Kapp destroyed her pro-life sign. Ironically, the pro-abortion activist said he was offended because children walking by could see the sign’s “horrific” image.

Ma has been charged with assault causing bodily injury, and is scheduled to appear in court on September 11. The 30-year-old student is in the pharmacology program at the University of Iowa.