Thirty years ago, Willa Craig, director of the Blue Mountain Clinic, stood in front of the drooping roof and broken windows of the abortion clinic that an arsonist set on fire early that morning in Missoula, Montana.
“This morning Missoula, Montana learned that no place in America is safe from a hateful and misguided group,” she told reporters and onlookers.
The 1993 Blue Mountain Clinic fire was part of one of the most violent periods of anti-abortion protests in the United States in the 1990s and 2000s, when the clinic was blown up and an abortionist killed.Now, less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Law vs Wadean increasing number of rhetorical and physical attacks against clinics that still offer abortions in conservative-led states.
Following last year’s Supreme Court ruling, the US Department of Justice formed the Reproductive Rights Task Force to focus more attention on anti-abortion violence and intimidation. Since 2011, DOJ has filed dozens of criminal and civil lawsuits for blocking, threatening, and damaging access to abortion clinics. In 2022 he was charged 26 people. This is more than the last three years combined. The FBI is also investigating a series of abortion clinic arson attacks, mostly in states that have maintained or strengthened access to abortions since her June 24 incident. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturn the decision egg.
The increase in violence has prompted abortion rights advocates to warn that more violence will occur if parts of the fragmented anti-abortion movement grow impatient with judicial and political efforts to ban and restrict abortion. I am concerned that it may Meanwhile, anti-abortion activists say vandalism committed at pregnancy resource centers over the past year could escalate into violence among abortion rights advocates if states further tighten access to abortions. I am concerned that
Violence against abortion providers was already on the rise before the Supreme Court ruled to end federal protections against abortion, according to the National Abortion Federation. reports increased by 600%, clinic break-ins by 129% and assaults by 128%. The organization is still compiling figures for 2022 with subsequent data. egg However, Chief Program Officer Melissa Fowler expects the upward trend to continue.
“When clinics are closed, protesters don’t just pack up and go home,” Fowler said. “Often, they travel or move to other communities or states to target clinics that are open there.”
There have also been attacks on anti-abortion pregnancy resource centers, which have been vandalized in several states since last year. Police in Minnesota were looking for vandals at Abria Pregnancy Resource in St. Paul last summer who broke windows and sprayed red spray saying, “If abortions aren’t safe, neither are you,” he said. KSTP reported.
Clinic director Angela Franny had previously voiced her support for the Supreme Court ruling. Dobbs decision.
Last May in Wyoming, Casper’s new abortion clinic was set on fire before it opened after a draft decision was leaked to the press. condemned rhetoric.
“They are very skilled at letting these lone wolves in and doing their dirty work and making sure their hands are kept clean,” said Burkhart.
Federal officials recently charged a woman with arson in the incident. According to her affidavit, 22-year-old Lorna Green allegedly set fire to the Wellspring Health Access Clinic in her hometown of Casper because “she didn’t like abortions.” supposedly acknowledged.
The clinic is scheduled to open this spring, but the future is uncertain. State law prohibits nearly all abortions in Wyoming, but on March 22, a judge temporarily banned the law pending a legal challenge.
The most recent attack on an abortion clinic in Montana occurred in 2014 in Kalispell, about 120 miles north of Missoula. There, the son of an anti-abortion activist breaks in and destroys All Families Healthcare. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, suspended for 15 years.
Susan Cahill, owner of All Families Healthcare, says she wants to keep working after the break-in. But her family, concerned for her safety, persuaded her to retire.
“For a few years after my office was destroyed, I was pretty depressed,” Cahill said.
The closure of the clinic created a desert of abortion care for four years until another provider took over the practice.
Montana continues to allow access to abortion services, as protected by the state constitution, but few clinics perform abortions. We also offer abortion services in several Montana cities. All families have reopened for business under new owner Helen Weems in Whitefish, just north of Kalispell in the Flathead Valley of northwestern Montana.
Montana’s Republican governor and Republican-led Congress are now trying to limit access to abortion. Governor Greg Gianforte and Attorney General Austin Knudsen are asking the state Supreme Court to overturn his 1999 ruling. armstrong vs stateIt argued that access to abortion is protected under the right to privacy in the Montana Constitution.
“It’s time for the Montana Supreme Court to take up this issue. Armstrong Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said at an anti-abortion rally at the Montana State Capitol in January.
Meanwhile, state legislators are moving legislation aimed at decoupling access to abortion from constitutional rights to privacy, along with other measures restricting abortion. Gianforte’s administration and conservative lawmakers are also trying to make it more difficult for Medicaid patients to obtain medically necessary abortions.
But polls suggest most Montana residents support access to abortion, and voters rejected the 2022 ballot initiative. The initiative would impose criminal penalties on health officials who fail to work to save the lives of babies born after attempted abortions or births. No chance of long-term survival.
A recent study by the Public Religion Research Institute found that more Montanaans believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases than in any other bordering state.
Messages sent by voters in Montana and those who passed the 2022 ballot measures in favor of reproductive rights in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan and Vermont have left Republicans with an unexpected challenge. said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the university. A California Davis doctor who studies the anti-abortion movement.
While these politicians hope to avoid upsetting voters, they hope to appease the more extreme anti-abortion groups by promising progress through legal means, Ziegler said.with fragmented movements egg Those in the mainstream of the anti-abortion movement are worried about what more radical elements will do if their cause doesn’t advance in courts and state legislatures, she said.
“Literally, the last thing you want is PR that your movement is related to violence,” says Ziegler.
A healthcare provider in Montana said:egg It was an uneasy time, as we kept our doors open for patients from Montana and neighboring states where abortion is banned, while defending ourselves against legal and political attacks.
Nicole Smith, current executive director of Blue Mountain Clinic, said: “We have to be there and hold the line for them.”
Weems of All Families Healthcare says having to fend off constant legal assaults on abortion care has changed her mindset.
“I feel like my role has shifted from being strictly a healthcare provider to being more of a political activist,” she said.
Abortion rights advocates work to support health care providers in managing the emotional toll of these legal assaults. The newly founded Montana Sexual & Reproductive Health Collective partners with licensed therapists to provide free emotional and psychological support to providers.
“We don’t need to triage abortion providers or abortion rights groups,” said group leader Hilary Ann Crosby. I think.”
This article is part of a partnership involving Montana Public Radio, NPR, and KHN.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health issues. KHN is one of the three main operating programs of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation), along with policy analysis and polls. KFF is a donated non-profit organization that provides information on health issues to the public.
