The president of a prominent national pro-choice organization is criticizing the press for largely ignoring the recent series of arson attacks on Planned Parenthood clinics around the country, in acts of what it called “domestic terrorism.”
NARAL Pro-Choice America started a petition Friday to demand the FBI investigate the attacks.
In a statement obtained by Media Matters for America, NARAL President Ilyse Hogue said “we are witnessing acts of domestic terrorism at healthcare facilities across the country, targeting women who seek medical advice and the doctors who are brave enough to counsel them — in the face of repeated, violent attacks and daily threats.”
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She continued, saying that “instead of treating these incidents as the real and present danger to innocent civilians that they are, Congress is inviting anti-abortion extremists to testify at hearings, the Department of Justice has yet to announce a full investigation, and the news media remains silent. Where is the outrage?”
Hogue criticized the media for “staying silent or failing to discuss this new wave of attacks on health clinics in the context of anti-abortion extremism,” and contended that journalists are “giving extremists the cover to regressively and violently attack women, their access to health care, and the medical professionals who provide it.”
Media Matters is a liberal watchdog that, according to its website, is “dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.”
In conjunction with its petition, NARAL Pro-Choice America released a video, titled “No more domestic terrorism,” showcasing “decades of violence perpetrated against women’s healthcare providers.” The group said that in less than 20 hours, the petition had more than 23,000 signatures.
Recent attacks on Planned Parenthood facilities have included a blaze set off in September at a clinic in Washington state, which authorities determined was arson. An arson investigation is being conducted in Los Angeles as the result of an attack in October.
Another attack occurred Aug. 1 in Louisiana, days before Gov. Bobby Jindal announced his state would be stripping Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood clinics in response to the release of several undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing how their clinics provide aborted fetal tissue to biomedical companies.
In response, Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, “Gov. Jindal has aligned himself with extremists who are hell-bent on ending access to safe, legal abortion — including breaking the law, peddling in false accusations, and violence and harassment of women and doctors. Just yesterday, extremists set fire to a security guard’s vehicle outside our Planned Parenthood health center under construction in New Orleans.”
