<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655503715635,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000168-ed87-defd-a17f-fdd754cd0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655503715635,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000168-ed87-defd-a17f-fdd754cd0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55503705", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1035212"} }); ","_id":"00000181-73b5-d082-a1ad-7bfdf33b0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedCrisis pregnancy centers targeted by radical abortion rights groups in recent weeks have had to scale up security systems drastically in the wake of attacks such as firebombing and broken windows.
Left-wing groups Jane’s Revenge and Ruth Sent Us have stepped up attacks on CPCs, often faith-based organizations that perform services such as sonograms and counseling for pregnant women but do not provide or refer for abortions.
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“We definitely have heightened our security. We had cameras and alarms previously, and they’re in working order but we are getting a couple more cameras so we can get better angles around our building,” said Heather Vasquez, executive director of the Next Step Pregnancy Center in Washington state.
The center was vandalized in the early hours of May 25. Windows were smashed, and the assailants spray-painted the now-recognizable slogan “If abortions aren’t safe, you aren’t either,” a sentence that has been scrawled on pregnancy resource centers across the country. Next Step has a traditional security system that, when breached, connects to local law enforcement, but Vasquez said there was “unfortunately a little bit of a breakdown between our security system and the police department, and they’re now working on that.”
Next Step has an in-person security team to monitor the building at night, and executives are in talks about adding a security presence during the day. Vasquez’s hope is that the facility will not need to stand up a security guard during the day in the presence of children and mothers coming through.
In Buffalo, New York, meanwhile, CompassCare Pregnancy Services was firebombed and spray-painted with “Jane Was Here” earlier this month. The phrase implicates Jane’s Revenge, which declared “open season” on crisis pregnancy centers that refuse to shut down operations. The cost of repairing the facilities that have been attacked has placed a financial strain on the nonprofit groups that rely on donations.
“The facility is catastrophically damaged, and it will take several months and hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair and get back online,” said Jim Harden, CEO of CompassCare. “We have been scaling up security — and it takes a lot of money. And we’re privately funded from private donations from churches and individuals, so it wasn’t in the budget.”
Abortion rights advocates have long argued that CPCs spread misinformation, such as the theory that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer, and that they lure in women looking for abortions without first disclosing that they do not provide them.
Offices of anti-abortion organizations that do not provide health services have also been targeted. Oregon Right to Life, for example, was firebombed on Mother’s Day. One bomb hit the office’s air conditioning unit, while another hit the building on the opposite side, indicating to employees of the organization that attackers intended to do extensive damage. The office has responded by installing in-person security guards for the first time in the organization’s 20 years of occupying the building.
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“Other than being concerned about break-ins to steal things, we’ve never thought about security against this kind of political attack. But we hired a security company to have in-person security here, and we’re working with the police,” said Lois Anderson, executive director of Oregon Right to Life.
In addition to hiring security officers, the organization will upgrade its camera surveillance systems.
“One of the issues was not being able to read the license plate or see faces, so we’re going to be spending a lot more money on an updated, upgraded security system for the office, unfortunately,” Anderson said.
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The attacks have piled up since the leaked Supreme Court decision in early May that hinted at justices’ plans to rule in favor of a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a ruling that would void legal federal protection for previability abortions and return authority to regulate abortion access to the states.
The group Ruth Sent Us has orchestrated protests against the conservative justices on the court at their homes. Next Step Pregnancy Center in Washington is also planning to increase its security presence in the lead-up to and immediate aftermath of the Dobbs decision, which is expected to come out before the end of the month.
