<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655494060939,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000180-1937-dba2-a7ba-39b778700000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655494060939,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000180-1937-dba2-a7ba-39b778700000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55494056", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1035122"} }); ","_id":"00000181-6f1f-dd13-a9fb-7f3f945d0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThe FBI is investigating the rash of attacks and vandalism targeting anti-abortion activist groups and pregnancy centers across the country.
The bureau told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that it did not have a comment on any specific groups carrying out the violence but acknowledged an inquiry is underway.
“The FBI is investigating a series of attacks and threats targeting pregnancy resource centers and faith-based organizations across the country,” a spokesperson for the FBI’s national press office said. “The FBI takes all threats seriously and we continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners and will remain vigilant to protect our communities.” The bureau urged the public to provide tips or information to law enforcement about any threats.
Since the May 2 leak of a draft of a Supreme Court opinion for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization signaling Roe v. Wade will be overturned, there have been heightened threats against Supreme Court Justices and anti-abortion advocates.
More than 100 House Republicans sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday that calls on the Department of Justice to investigate the incidents as acts of domestic terrorism.
“We write to express serious concerns over recent attacks targeting religious organizations and crisis pregnancy centers and request the Department of Justice respond with how its National Security Division plans to investigate these acts of domestic terrorism,” the House Republicans wrote.
Last week, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) also pressed Garland on the domestic terrorism classification.
The House GOP letter argued that “terrorists have targeted numerous pro-life crisis pregnancy centers — two of which culminated in the firebombing and destruction of property by the terrorist group Jane’s Revenge” in Buffalo, New York, and Madison, Wisconsin.
GUN-TOTING SUSPECT INDICTED IN ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE KAVANAUGH
The GOP letter also listed 11 incidents from May and two in June. These incidents involved one in Colorado, two in Maryland, two in Texas, one in Wisconsin, one in Oregon, two in Virginia, two in Washington state, one in North Carolina, and one in the nation’s capital (where the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center was vandalized). The targets were churches, pregnancy centers, and anti-abortion offices.
The political advocacy group CatholicVote put the number at two dozen as of press time. The Catholic News Agency said there have been more than 30 such events. And the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group said Thursday that when tallying up vandalism, violence, and interruptions of worship at churches, there were more than 40 incidents.
“Violence and destruction of property have no place in our country under any circumstances, and the president denounces this,” White House assistant press secretary Alexandra LaManna told the Daily Wire on Wednesday. “We should all agree that actions like this are completely unacceptable regardless of our politics.”
Anti-abortion leaders, including the secretariat for pro-life activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, sent a letter to Garland on Thursday.
“We, the undersigned representing millions of Americans, are writing to voice our concerns over the increased attacks against churches, pregnancy resource centers and pro-life organizations in the aftermath of the leaked draft opinion,” the anti-abortion leaders told the DOJ leader. “We call on you to publicly condemn these unlawful attacks; to commit to vigorous efforts to prevent them, and to investigate and prosecute them; and to proactively engage with the affected faith communities to ensure their concerns and security needs are being met.”
They also asked for a meeting with DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
Last week, 16 Republican senators, along with a number of national anti-abortion groups, sent a letter to Garland telling him “the criminal acts perpetrated against those who oppose legalized abortion are a clear effort to intimidate or coerce individuals who hold pro-life values.”
The gun-toting suspect who traveled from California to Maryland last week in an alleged plot to kill Brett Kavanaugh in his home over anger that he might help overturn Roe has been indicted by a federal grand jury for an “attempt to assassinate” the Supreme Court justice. Nicholas Roske, 26, traveled thousands of miles and showed up at Kavanaugh’s house in Maryland after midnight with burglary tools, a knife, a gun, and a pair of special boots with outer soles allowing stealth movement inside a house, though he walked away when he spotted a pair of deputy U.S. marshals, who were part of the Supreme Court justice’s security force, outside Kavanaugh’s home, according to court records.
“This kind of behavior is, obviously, it’s behavior — we will not tolerate it,” Garland said last week. “Threats of violence and actual violence against the justices, of course, strike at the heart of our democracy, and we will do everything we can to prevent them and to hold people that do them accountable.”
Roske told investigators he was angry about the possibility of the high court overturning Roe and also believed Kavanaugh would play a role in upholding Second Amendment rights and loosening gun laws in a separate high-profile case yet to be decided this term.
GOP Senate leadership also sent a letter to the DOJ on Wednesday demanding answers over a lack of criminal prosecution surrounding “illegal picketing” outside the homes of justices.
The Justice Department did not comment on why it was not enforcing 18 U.S. Code § 1507, which prohibits “pickets or parades” near judge’s homes when such protests are done “with the intent of influencing any judge.”
The White House condemned a Molotov cocktail attack on a Wisconsin anti-abortion office in May, saying President Joe Biden “strongly condemns this attack and political violence of any stripe.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was pressed on the uptick in arson targeting anti-abortion groups on Monday.
“Well, that’s something, clearly, the DOJ is looking into,” she said. “And they’ve taken that very seriously. We have seen an uptick of that type of arson and bombing and — or attempt to bomb, as we saw just recently over the weekend.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The U.S. attorney and the FBI’s assistant director in charge for the nation’s capital said in a joint statement last Friday that “we will not tolerate violence, destruction, interference with government functions, or trespassing on government property,” including at the Supreme Court. It did not mention the justice’s homes.
The House overwhelmingly passed a bill Tuesday to broaden security for justices and their families, with all of the 27 votes opposing the bill coming from Democrats.
