In addition to the violent, right-wing, and white supremacist groups we know rushed the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, there was also a small and mostly underreported group of pro-lifers present.
The extremists who have been targeting abortion providers and clinics are many of the same people who continue to support former President Donald Trump, and were more than willing to storm the Capitol to stop the official count of the Electoral College results they refused to accept.
According to VICE, infamous anti-abortionist John Brockhoeft, a convicted Planned Parenthood bomber, livestreamed himself on the steps of the Capitol during the insurrection.
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In 1991, Brockhoeft was sentenced to seven years after he pleaded guilty to a charge of setting a fire in the basement of the Margaret Sanger Center in Cincinnati on Dec. 30, 1985. No one was injured, but the clinic was destroyed.
Ms. Magazine reports that Brockhoeft joined other pro-lifer militants such as Chad Estes, Bobby Lee, Dave Daubenmire, and Derrick Evans, a West Virginia politician who was arrested following Jan. 6.
Evans was accused of harassing and stalking a volunteer at a West Virginia abortion clinic in 2019.
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A well-known Baby Lives Matter member, Taylor Hansen, was at the door of the U.S. Capitol when Ashli Babbitt was shot by police while trying to break into the Speakers Lobby outside of the House Chamber, Ms. Magazine reports.
According to Jezebel, Abby Johnson, one of the most ardent anti-abortion fanatics, was on the Hill during the insurrection.
We know Trump caters to the anti-abortion crowd, as Ms. Magazine points out, he was the first sitting president to speak at a March for Life gathering.
“Unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House,” Trump said at the May 2020 rally. “The far left is actively working to erase our God-given rights,” he said, adding that they want to “silence Americans who believe in the sanctity of life.”
Pro-choice advocates and law enforcement are now bracing for the country to explode in violence should Roe v. Wade be steamrolled by the U.S. Supreme Court, as the recent leak to Politico indicates.
Ms. Magazine reports a recent call by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security to discuss the reports outlining the possibilities of pro-life extremists reacting violently toward pro-choice activists in the wake of the overturning of Roe, which would prove that the decades of violence against abortion providers and clinics has been effective.
According to the National Abortion Federation, despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, targeted violence and disruption against abortion providers has escalated—increased vandalism, assault and battery, death threats, stalking, and hoax devices dating back to 2019.