Anti-abortion violence is the next wave of domestic terrorism

Antigovernment violence has declined temporarily, as extremist groups have gone to ground after the Jan. 6 insurrection. However, a new wave of terrorism is sweeping the country: attacks on clinics that provide women’s health services, including abortions. 

Doctors and healthcare workers at these facilities have long faced threats, intimidation and violence at the hands of people ironically professing to be “pro-life.” 

A surge of incidents occurred in the aftermath of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.  

From 1977-1984, women’s health clinics (98 percent of which provided abortions) suffered 110 cases of arson, bombing or firebombing. Another 220 facilities were vandalized and 216 others received bomb threats. Extremists threatened the lives of 65 people providing reproductive services. 

Threats sometimes escalated to murder. In 1993, an antiabortion activist shot Dr. David Gunn to death outside a clinic in Pensacola, Fla. He was the first provider to die; he would not be the last. 

Since 1977, anti-abortion extremists have murdered 11 doctors and staff at clinics providing abortions and attempted to kill 26 others. 

While most members of the self-proclaimed “pro-life” movement reject violence, their ideology inspires those who use it. 

The murder of Dr. George Tiller revealed the connection between inflammatory rhetoric and violence. Fox News talk show host Bill O’Reilly repeatedly excoriated the doctor whom he dubbed “Tiller the baby killer,” calling him out 29 times between Feb. 25, 2005, and April 27, 2009. 

On May 31, 2009, Scott Roeder shot Tiller in the head at his Wichita, Kan., church, showing no regard for human life or the sacredness of a sanctuary. 

Cathy Reavis, a nurse at the clinic where Tiller worked, blamed Operation Rescue, a strident anti-abortion group, for bringing national attention to the slain doctor. Dr. Shelly Sella, another physician at the clinic added, “The anti-abortionists who don’t carry guns definitely insight the ones who do.” 

Many commentators blamed O’Reilly. Rolling Stone’s David S. Cohen wrote: “O’Reilly had waged an unflagging war against Tiller that did just about everything short of urging his followers to murder him.” 

O’Reilly condemned the killing but was unrepentant about his verbal assault on Tiller, even claiming to be the victim of leftists using the tragedy to silence him. 

Far-right commentator Ann Coulter refused to condemn the killing. “I don’t really like to think of it as a murder,” she said on O’Reilly’s show. “It was terminating Tiller in the 203rd trimester,” a sarcastic reference to the doctor’s age. 

In addition to overt acts of violence, clinic workers and women exercising their reproductive rights have experienced repeated harassment and intimidation at facilities across the country over the past 50 years. Anti-abortion extremists also blocked access to clinics. 

Conditions at these facilities became so dangerous that in 1994, Congress passed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The law made it a federal crime to assault, threaten, interfere with or intimidate a patient or provider entering a clinic. 

For conservatives and liberals the appointment of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in late 2020 signaled that Roe vs. Wade would probably be overturned. Despite the impending end to free access to abortion, violence and threats increased dramatically in 2021. 

According to a report by the National Abortion Federation, assault and battery at clinics increased 128 percent from the previous year. Vandalism of clinics increased by 54 percent, bomb threats by 80 percent and stalking of clinic staff by 600 percent.  

Attacks continued throughout 2022. On March 23, an unknown assailant threw a Molotov cocktail at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Costa Mesa, Calif. In May, someone set fire to a clinic in Casper, Wyo. 

The Dobbs decision overturning Roe vs. Wade did not end the violence. A week after the landmark ruling an arsonist set fire to a clinic in Kalamazoo, Mich. Police have arrested and charged a suspect for that crime.  

Antigovernment and white supremacist groups have embraced the anti-abortion cause. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, during the first six months of 2022, the Proud Boys engaged in counterprotests or harassed people “on at least 28 separate occasions at LGBTQ and reproductive justice events around the country.” 

Following the leak foreshadowing the Dobbs decision, armed members of groups that participated in the Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally and the Jan. 6 insurrection started appearing at demonstrations where protestors and counterprotesters confronted one another. On June 28, Proud Boys with assault rifles participated in a rally at the state capitol in Boise, ID.  

According to the Giffords Law Center, nearly 1 in 5 events focused on the abortion issue during 2022 “involved members of a far-right group.” 

Unfortunately, a spate of violence against institutions that oppose abortion occurred during the second half of 2022. From the Supreme court leak in May to the beginning of November, extremists carried out 122 attacks and threats against anti-abortion facilities and churches. Most were acts of vandalism, including spray painting graffiti, although five arson attacks occurred.

However, these incidents appear to be a temporary expression of rage rather than the beginning of a new extremist campaign. Planned Parenthood and 150 other reproductive rights groups have issued a joint statement unequivocally condemning the violence. 

Compare their response with a Jan. 11 House of Representatives resolution passed by the Republican majority condemning pro-choice violence while ignoring violence perpetrated by anti-abortion extremists 

Reprehensible though this year’s pro-choice attacks are, they pale in comparison to half a century of violence directed at clinics and women using their services. 

The terrorist campaign against women’s reproductive rights shows no sign of abating. On Jan. 15, an anti-abortion extremist hurled a Molotov cocktail through the window of a Peoria, Ill., Planned Parenthood clinic.  

The attack occurred two days after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed House Bill 4664 guaranteeing protection to women from out-of-state seeking abortions in Illinois. 

Nothing short of a complete ban on abortions in all 50 states will satisfy the most extreme antiabortionists who view the ballot, the bomb and the bullet as acceptable means to achieve their objective. 

Tom Mockaitis is a professor of history at DePaul University and author of “Violent Extremists: Understanding the Domestic and International Terrorist Threat.”