A new report from the National Abortion Federation shows a steep rise in various incidents at U.S. abortion clinics. In 2018, trespassing had risen to its highest annual level since the federation started gathering information on these incidents in 1999.
NAF has been keeping track of incidents of violence and disruption against abortion providers for more than four decades. Since 1977, by its count, there have been 11 murders, 26 attempted murders, 42 bombings, 188 arsons, and thousands of incidents of criminal activities directed at abortion providers.
In its latest annual tally released this week, instances of trespassing at clinics hit 1,135, a 78% rise from 2017 to 2018. There were 125 vandalism incidents, the highest number since 1990. In 2017, there were 1,704 instances of obstruction of a clinic; in 2018, NAF recorded 3,038 incidents. There were also 57 threats of death or harm at clinics last year, including one in which a forced-birther with a bullhorn yelled to staff entering a clinic, “I have a bullet with your name on it.”
That may only be bullyboy tactics, but it and others like it cannot be taken as idle threats.
Next Friday, May 31, marks the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. George Tiller. He was the medical director of Women's Health Care Services in Wichita, Kansas, one of only three clinics across the nation at the time that provided late-term abortions. The assassin shot him in the head during a church service. It wasn’t the first time somebody had tried to murder him. In 1993, he had been shot in both arms. In 1986, his clinic was firebombed. Violence has been a part of the forced-birther movement from early on.
For this reason, when someone makes a threat of violence against an abortion provider or clinic, it is taken seriously. Some doctors who provide abortions wear bulletproof vests. Tiller often did, although he was not wearing his the morning he was shot. And a vest won’t necessarily protect a doctor who wears it all the time. Dr. Warren Hern is a Colorado physician who has been providing abortions in Boulder since 1974. Hern told the Los Angeles Times in 2009:
"I think [Tiller's murder is] the inevitable consequence of more than 35 years of constant antiabortion terrorism, harassment and violence," he said. "I get messages from these people saying, 'Don't bother wearing a bulletproof vest, we're going for a head shot.'"
As a consequence, when the now-81-year-old physician is at his office, he makes sure to draw the blinds.
In its report, NAF says:
“Anti-choice individuals and groups have been emboldened by the rhetoric of President Trump, Vice President Pence, and other elected officials and we are seeing this play out in more instances of activities meant to intimidate abortion providers and disrupt patient services,” said The Very Reverend Katherine Ragsdale, Interim President and CEO of NAF. “Demonizing health care providers and women who rely on them for abortion care has become one of the go-to tactics for anti-choice politicians. Those lies have consequences and it is not the anti-choice politicians who are facing those consequences; it is those who are denied abortion care and the providers targeted by threats, harassment, and violence who are. It is time for the demonizing of abortion providers and their patients to end.”
“Given the political climate and the increase in hate incidents throughout the country, it is more important than ever that law enforcement and prosecutors appropriately respond to anti-abortion criminal activity.”