Six days after the FBI announced a formal investigation into a series of attacks against churches and pro-life organizations, the agency seems to be following through, though no arrests appear to have been made.
At press time, The Washington Stand contacted 27 pregnancy resource centers and pro-life organizations that had been attacked since May 2. Four said the FBI had reached out to them, seven said that the FBI had not as of yet contacted them, and 14 did not respond to TWS’s request for comment.
So far, the eruption of attacks against churches and pro-life organizations and the subsequent announcement of an FBI investigation has received scant coverage from legacy media. Curiously, the Associated Press published an article on Wednesday claiming that “abortion providers” are currently on “heightened alert” without citing any instances of attacks on abortion facilities since the May 2 Supreme Court leak. In the 14th paragraph of a 17-paragraph story, author Sara Burnett acknowledged that a pro-life group had said that there were “more than 40 incidents of violence, intimidation and vandalism at pregnancy centers and churches in recent weeks.”
On Sunday night, two pregnancy resource centers were attacked in the Detroit metropolitan area. The Lennon Pregnancy Center in Dearborn Heights had its glass doors and windows smashed in, and the front façade of the building was spray painted with the messages, “If abortion isn’t safe, neither are you” and “Fake clinic.” Just four miles north in Redford, the Pregnancy Care Center sustained similar damage, with multiple windows and a glass door shattered and the messages “Fake clinic” and “Jane was here” spray painted on the side of the building.
These attacks are the latest in a series of violent acts that have been committed against churches, pregnancy resource centers, pro-life organizations, and individuals. In the first three weeks of June, there have been at least 14 attacks. Overall, The Washington Stand has counted at least 63 acts of violence, property destruction, and disruption of religious services in the 52 days since the May 2 leak of a draft Supreme Court decision that could overturn Roe v. Wade. Forty-four of these incidents have directly involved property destruction and vandalism of churches, pregnancy resource centers, and other pro-life organizations.
On June 17, the FBI released a statement saying that the agency was “investigating a series of attacks and threats targeting pregnancy resource centers and faith-based organizations across the country.”
In response to The Washington Stand’s request for comment inquiring if any arrests had been made in relation to the investigation, an FBI spokesperson said in an email: “I am bound by the longstanding policy of the Department of Justice to not comment on the existence of or ongoing investigations.”
On June 15, the pro-abortion extremist group “Jane’s Revenge” published a “communique” claiming responsibility for attacks in 16 different cities, also adding that these attacks were just some “among others.” On Tuesday, the website known as “Abolition Media” posted another message from Jane’s Revenge in which they claimed responsibility for both of the pregnancy resource center attacks in Detroit on Sunday.
In response, a group of Congressional Republicans sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday demanding that they “officially classify those committing crimes through Jane’s Revenge as domestic terrorists.”
Wiley Thompson, a former FBI assistant director, gave a grave assessment of the attacks. “Based on an objective reading of federal statutes, there is reason to believe that the crimes occurring at the pro-life pregnancy centers are a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO),” he told The Washington Stand. “The FBI should identify the source of funding, direction, and coordination among the offenders and then create a link analysis that connects the dots for presentation to a federal grand jury, followed by indictments.”
“RICO is a tool that the federal government has used against the mob and other criminal enterprises for decades, with great success,” Thompson concluded. “Don’t let it go to waste!”
Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.
