Justice Department goes AWOL on domestic terrorism

Since May 3, when a draft Supreme Court majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked to the press, there have been at least 24 attacks on crisis pregnancy centers across the nation. The attacks range from simple vandalism to outright domestic terrorism. On May 3, a pregnancy center in Illinois was razed, causing roughly $250,000 in damages. On May 8, a crisis pregnancy center in Madison, Wisconsin, was firebombed. That same day, a Right to Life office in Keizer, Oregon, was hit with Molotov cocktails. On June 6, a pregnancy center in Buffalo, New York, was firebombed. These centers provide diapers and baby supplies to mothers. Along with material aid, they also provide education and training to new parents.

Several Roman Catholic churches have also been targeted since the Supreme Court leak, most likely over the church’s teaching that abortion is a grave moral evil. In other words, the attacks appear to clear the bar for what constitutes a “hate crime.” As the number of attacks on crisis pregnancy centers and Roman Catholic churches rapidly ticks up, pro-abortion activists continue to demonstrate outside the homes of conservative Supreme Court justices.

There’s clearly a coordinated campaign of intimidation and violence aimed at pro-life groups and people, a campaign most likely spearheaded by pro-abortion fanatics. Yet the Justice Department remains frustratingly silent on the matter. The FBI said it is investigating some attacks, but there is no obvious leadership from the top. Bias may play into this dynamic: The Department of Justice official tasked specifically with investigating attacks on “reproductive healthcare facilities” is on the record as having referred to crisis pregnancy centers as “fake clinics.”

A group that calls itself Jane’s Revenge, which has claimed responsibility for attacks on pro-life groups in Wisconsin, Colorado, Washington, Iowa, North Carolina, New York, Florida, Texas, Oregon, and Washington, D.C., released a “communique” this week vowing not just more of the same but worse. “You could have walked away,” the message read. “Now the leash is off. And we will make it as hard as possible for your campaign of oppression to continue.”

It added, “We have demonstrated in the past month how easy and fun it is to attack. We are versatile, we are mercurial, and we answer to no one but ourselves. We promised to take increasingly drastic measures against oppressive infrastructures. Rest assured that we will, and those measures may not come in the form of something so easily cleaned up as fire and graffiti.”

This is a clear threat. Yet our chief law enforcement agency remains mum on the matter.

Over on Capitol Hill, it has been more of the same. Though the White House has condemned the violence, Democratic lawmakers on the Hill don’t seem all that interested in doing the same, which is astonishing considering they come from the same end of the political spectrum that believes “silence is violence.”

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked this week whether Democratic rhetoric helped incite attacks on crisis pregnancy centers, she failed even to condemn the violence. Rather, she said only that “politicizing all of this is uniquely American.”

Her remarks came not long after 27 Democratic lawmakers, many of whom have spent years blaming conservative rhetoric for acts of political violence, voted against a bill to strengthen security measures for Supreme Court justices and their families. Their number includes Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Cori Bush (D-MO), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Maxine Waters (D-CA). It’s worth noting that this is the same Bush who attempted in 2021 to reconcile her “defund the police” platform with the fact she maintains an armed security detail by saying, “Suck it up. And defunding the police has to happen.”

The Supreme Court bill was put forward shortly after the draft the majority opinion leaked. The Senate approved and unanimously passed the bill almost immediately. However, the House took its sweet time getting around to voting on the proposed legislation. In fact, prior to voting on the bill, Pelosi even seemed annoyed when it was suggested the legislation merited a certain sense of urgency, especially following the June 8 assassination attempt on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“The justices are protected,” the congresswoman assured reporters not even 24 hours after the assassination attempt. “There will be a bill, but nobody is in danger over the weekend because of not having a bill.”

Really?

At the time of his arrest, Kavanaugh’s would-be assassin, Nicholas John Roske, had a Glock 17 pistol, ammunition, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, a screwdriver, a nail punch, a crowbar, a pistol light, duct tape, and hiking boots with padding on the outside of the soles. Roske, who was arrested near Kavanaugh’s home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, told police he was upset about the leaked draft Supreme Court majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.

Perhaps Pelosi operates under a different definition of the word “danger?”

Meanwhile, Maryland law enforcement officials reportedly told Kavanaugh’s neighbors that federal authorities are declining to enforce a federal statute against picketing a judge’s home with intent to influence. If true, this would signify a significant dereliction of duty by the federal government. 

Last week, after dozens of hate crimes and acts of domestic terrorism aimed at pro-life groups and persons and persistent silence from federal authorities, the White House responded directly to the Jane’s Revenge “communique.”

“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.

It’d be nice if the Justice Department also weighed in on this — that is, if it isn’t too busy investigating parents for protesting at school board meetings.