St. Louis, MO -- A guard at an abortion facility in Granite City, IL (across the MIssouri-Illinois border from St. Louis) has been charged with battery after striking a pro-life advocate several times on the head, police report.

Police arrested Selma Owens Jr., 65, a guard at the Hope Clinic for Women abortion facility, on Saturday after the incident, which authorities said was recorded on a surveillance video camera across the street. Owens struck Daniel Michael of Highland after a dispute in the abortion facility's parking lot, police said. The charge against Owens is a misdemeanor.

Michael, his wife, Angela, and their 11 children, lead an area pro-life organization. They have been offering abortion alternatives to women going to the abortion facility for almost seven years.

"I've never witnessed anything that violent," Angela Michael said. "We always assume that the violence goes on behind the clinic's doors."

The abortion facility is the only one where abortions are performed in southwestern Illinois and has developed an infamous reputation for advertising in several states and recruiting women as far away as 500 miles or more from the St. Louis metro area to come to Granite City for abortions.

Abortion facility managers claim Michael had been leveling racial insults at Owens, an African-American, for months and that he finally snapped. "(Owens) doesn't have any history of flying off the handle," said Sally Burgess, the abortion business' executive director. "They just got to him this time."

Daniel and Angela Michael say Burgess' claims are bogus. The surveillance camera did not record sound to determine if there was any truth to the claims.

The incident began after several abortion facility employees walked a woman to her car about 9 a.m. Daniel Michael's 10-year-old daughter walked up to the woman to give her some literature about adoption. The abortion facility employees pushed the girl away, said Granite City Police Chief Dave Ruebhausen.

Daniel Michael aproached the empliyees and Owens to talk about his daughter. When Michael turned to walk away, Owens hit him over the head several times, all parties in the incident agree. Owens declined to comment on the incident. He will remain a guard at the abortion facility, Burgess said. Owens was released from custody Saturday after Burgess posted the bond for him on the misdemeanor battery charge.

Daniel and Angela Michael said their nondenominational pro-life ministry often helps women of all races when they need a job, shelter or clothes and food for their children. "There is no way we would use those words," Angela Michael said. "We do not talk like that. This is not a race thing."

Burgess said the so-called racial insults have gotten out of hand. She has contacted the National Abortion Federation and other pro-abortion legal groups about following up on the incident. "We're usually accustomed to anti-abortion protester, but we've never dealt with the racist hate," she said.

Ruebhausen said the Michael family were not zealous or violent protesters. He said they did not pose any threat to the abortion facility. "No matter what was said, the spoken word is not justification for battery," he said.