THE FBI IS HUNTING A NEW DOMESTIC TERROR THREAT: ABORTION RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

After GOP pressure, FBI abortion “terrorism” investigations increased tenfold, government data shows.

Ken Klippenstein
June 15 2023

FOLLOWING A CONCERTED effort by Republicans to pressure law enforcement agencies to target activists supporting the right to abortion, the FBI dramatically increased its caseload on abortion-related “domestic terrorism.”

Last year, as the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade sparked major protests nationwide, the FBI opened nearly 10 times as many investigations into cases of abortion-related domestic terrorism as it had in 2021, a new internal report reveals. While the report doesn’t say how many of these incidents were motivated by support for reproductive rights and how many were anti-abortion, the uptick follows calls by top Republicans in Congress for the bureau to pursue “pro-abortion terrorism.”

Continued: https://theintercept.com/2023/06/15/fbi-abortion-domestic-terrorism/


Abortion clinics regroup, rebuild after violent attacks: ‘There’s more work to be done’

Christine Fernando, USA TODAY
March 25, 2023

As a detective led her through the charred remains of the clinic, Julie Burkhart was heartbroken. Everything was black and melted. The smell was overwhelming. Fire and smoke damage had engulfed the building from the basement to the attic.

“I knew then that we were going to have a long road ahead,” said Burkhart, president of Wellspring Health Access in Casper, Wyoming.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/03/25/abortion-clinics-violence-attacks-rebound-rebuilding/11484439002/


“Women Are Going to Die”: A Late Abortion Doctor on the Dangers of Post-Roe America

Abigail Weinberg
July 19, 2022

Abortions that occur after 21 weeks gestation are vanishingly rare, accounting for about 1 percent of all abortions nationwide. The doctors who perform abortions later in pregnancy are even rarer: The 2013 documentary After Tiller cited just four doctors in the United States who performed abortions in the third trimester.

One of them is Dr. Warren Hern. He has operated in Boulder, Colorado, for decades, despite a constant onslaught of violence and harassment.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/07/warren-hern-boulder-late-abortion-doctor-interview-post-roe/


‘People want me dead’: abortion providers fear violence after Roe overturned

Danger is a daily reality for the health workers, and moments of upheaval raise the risk, expert says
Chris Stein
Sun 3 Jul 2022

Boulder, Colorado, has for decades made its abortion providers feel welcome. The city council passed one of the country’s first laws regulating how close demonstrators could get to patients seeking reproductive care, and residents took to the streets in protest when it became clear that the supreme court was ready to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, as it did last month.

“Boulder is probably the most pro-choice community in the country,” said Warren Hern, director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic. “But there are people in the community who want me dead.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/03/abortion-providers-violence-danger-roe-wade


The Anti-Abortion Movement Killed People. Now Victims’ Families Face A Post-Roe World.

Bombings, assassinations and kidnappings: The anti-abortion movement has always had a violent wing that left families shattered.

By Christopher Mathias
Jun 13, 2022

If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade in the coming weeks, it will mark the culmination of a decades-long, multimillion-dollar legal effort by the American conservative movement to end abortion rights and force many pregnant people to give birth.

It will also be the culmination of a
multi-decade terror campaign.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anti-abortion-violence-murdered-families-roe-v-wade_n_62a37f2ae4b0cdccbe4fa969


The Link Between the Capitol Riot and Anti-Abortion Extremism

By Jessica Winter
March 11, 2021

In 1988, a young Baptist minister in Buffalo named Daren Drzymala launched Project House Call, a series of protests in which he and fellow anti-abortion activists picketed the homes of local abortion providers. One of their first demonstrations occurred that September, on Yom Kippur, outside the home of a Jewish ob-gyn named Barnett Slepian. A few months later, on the third night of Hanukkah, they targeted Slepian again, and also another Jewish abortion provider, Shalom Press. The protesters prayed and sang Christmas carols outside their targets’ windows.

Local councils in Buffalo soon passed bans on the picketing of private residences. But the anti-abortion activists’ fixation on Press and Slepian did not end there.

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-link-between-the-capitol-riot-and-anti-abortion-extremism


USA – On the frontline: 12 hours in a besieged abortion clinic

On the frontline: 12 hours in a besieged abortion clinic
Rachel is a doctor who provides abortions. She commutes 10 hours each way to work in an area of Alabama that would otherwise not provide the procedure at all

by Vegas Tenold and Glenna Gordon in Montgomery, Alabama
Wed 24 Jul 2019

Rachel hunches down in the seat of a Chevrolet rental, adjusting her disguise in the mirror. She pulls down a fedora to partly cover her face, but isn’t convinced it offers enough cover. She puts on a pair of oversize sunglasses.

While the combination conceals her face, it is also not an inconspicuous sight in the pre-dawn Friday hours in a run-down neighborhood in Montgomery, Alabama.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/24/abortion-wars-alabama-12-hours-besieged-clinic?fbclid=IwAR1zjee5iFH6IoCuynmJCOteXiy51LcP8IBhSf7ibER2uH0SUI3YJ4MvX_s


USA – 10 years after abortion doctor George Tiller’s murder, advocates fear violent rhetoric

10 years after abortion doctor George Tiller's murder, advocates fear violent rhetoric

Alia E. Dastagir, USA TODAY
Published May 31, 2019

Ten years ago today, George Tiller, a Kansas abortion doctor, was attending Sunday service at his Wichita church when he was fatally shot by an anti-abortion extremist.

"However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence," President Barack Obama said in a statement after his death.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/31/george-tillers-murder-abortion-rights-advocates-worry-10-years-later/1300017001/