House adopts resolution condemning attacks on anti-abortion facilities, groups

The House adopted a resolution on Wednesday that condemns attacks on anti-abortion facilities and groups, which reportedly increased in number after the draft of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade leaked.

The measure was approved in a 222-219 vote, with three Democrats — Reps. Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.) — voting for the bill.

The text specifically “condemns recent attacks of vandalism, violence, and destruction against pro-life facilities, groups and churches” and “calls upon the Biden Administration to use all appropriate law enforcement authorities to uphold public safety and to protect the rights of pro-life facilities, groups, and churches.”

A draft of the Supreme Court’s majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade leaked in May, sparking a number of attacks on anti-abortion groups and resource centers, according to The Washington Post. In June, before the bench issued the highly anticipated opinion, the Department of Homeland Security warned that individuals on both sides of the issue have “encouraged violence” against the government and religious and reproductive health care personnel and facilities.

The resolution approved on Wednesday listed a number of attacks against anti-abortion institutions that occurred from when the decision leaked to the day the court published its opinion — including episodes of vandalism, igniting and throwing molotov cocktails, and setting an anti-abortion nonprofit center on fire.

During debate on the House floor Wednesday, Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) called attention to the incidents.

“There have been now nearly 100 recorded acts of violence and intimidation against pro-life individuals and organizations by radical, pro-abortion activists since the initial leak of the draft Supreme Court Dobbs opinion,” she said.

“Following the leak and issuance of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, anti-life fanatics have targeted, destroyed, or vandalized, as I said, over 100 pro-life facilities, groups, and churches to further their radical cause,” she added.

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) accused “radical pro-abortion extremists” of “committing violence against pro-life facilities, groups, and churches.”

Some Democrats, however, criticized the resolution for only condemning attacks on pro-life facilities, and not including incidents that involve abortion providers.

“I join my Democratic colleagues in opposing on the strongest terms all forms of political violence. That is something this resolution fails to do,” Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas) said. “This resolution fails to acknowledge decades of well-documented violence against reproductive health care providers in this country, and in failing to do so, it fails us all.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the resolution “an insufficient and divisive resolution that advances their extreme anti-choice agenda and diminishes a woman’s right to choose” in a statement following the vote.

Updated at 6:58 p.m.