In one instance, a member clinic received a phone call in which the caller stated “I will do anything and everything to stop the unmitigated murders of fetuses.I will do anything to stop the atrocities committed by your clinic every minute of every day at your clinic. You are all pieces of [expletive] and I will kill to stop these atrocities.I will blow you up if I have to, burn the clinic down.I will do whatever is necessary. I swear to God I will. After that you are in God’s hands and He will do His thing.”
The prospect of a racist, misogynist, loudmouthed criminal occupying the White House has inspired revulsion among millions of Americans, and deservedly so. However for many in Trump’s base of support—that 30-40% of all Americans who continue to register their approval of Trump in opinion polls, his election has been an inspiration, a liberation of sorts.
We have seen Trump-supporting White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis, energized by Trump’s solicitous praise and coy dog-whistling, emerge newly emboldened to spread their message of hate and bigotry to an extent not seen in recent memory. We have seen a huge spike in hate crimes, violence and threats against people of color, particularly Hispanics, Latinos and Muslims, by those eager to display their Trumpian bravado. We have seen Latino and Muslim schoolchildren routinely taunted by peers, echoing Trump’s racist rhetoric as the country grows coarser, more hateful and Trump-like in its character.
But another Trump supporting demographic has been also been resurgent, arguably the one that got him elected in the first place. That is the anti-choice faction, and it includes a subset of zealots who threaten to kill abortion providers and bomb Planned Parenthood clinics. The same ones who threaten women who seek reproductive counseling or services from these organizations. They too are also enjoying their moment in the sun:
Anti-abortion harassment has become more pronounced under the Trump presidency, according to new findings from the National Abortion Federation. In 2017, abortion providers reported 62 death threats or threats of harm, a number that has nearly doubled since 2016. Instances of trespassing more than tripled in 2017, while incidents of obstruction—protesters blocking providers and patients from entering a clinic—rose from 580 to more than 1,700 in the space of 12 months.
The NAF Study linked above specifically attributes the spike in violence and violent threats against abortion providers to “the current political environment.” There is simply no other plausible excuse for it--it is wholly attributable to Trump:
“The protesters are feeling emboldened by the political environment and seeing what they could get away with,” Vicki Saporta, the federation’s president, told the Associated Press. “They want to make it more difficult to provide care, without going to very extreme forms of violence.”
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“We know that hostile rhetoric, including rhetoric from anti-abortion elected officials, can incite some to take the law into their own hands by threatening abortion providers and committing acts of violence,” Saporta said in a statement.
Just as his immigration-bashing rhetoric is inspiring a new generation of anti-Latino and Hispanic racists to act out on their hatred, Trump’s anti-abortion statements have further inflamed his anti-choice base to carry out acts of violence to a degree many would not have considered before:
Since taking office, Trump has continued to portray abortion as outright murder, most recently when he became the first sitting president to speak at the annual March for Life in January. “Right now, in a number of states, the laws allow a baby to be born [torn] from his or her mother’s womb in the ninth month,” he told the crowd via video screen from the White House Rose Garden. “It is wrong; it has to change.”
The fact that the procedure Trump is referring to, a third trimester abortion, is rarely performed out except in cases of dire medical emergency, was not important to Trump. All that mattered was inflaming the passions of his base, and damn the consequences.
And inflame them he does. An OBGYN provider at a women’s health clinic in Illinois has witnessed the increase in threats and violence firsthand, much like watching a menacing dog on the verge of launching an attack:
“Anti-choice people and especially anti-choice extremists are feeling more supported by the president and vice president,” Laursen said. “This continued hostile rhetoric from anti-abortion politicians and officials is really emboldening people and taking autonomy away from patients trying to access health care.”
The person who made the death threat quoted at the top of this Diary is currently facing Federal charges.
