Arson, bombing, and property crime
According to NAF, since 1977 in the United States and Canada,
property crimes committed against abortion providers have included 41 bombings, 173 arsons, 91 attempted bombings or arsons, 619
bomb threats, 1630 incidents of
trespassing, 1264 incidents of
vandalism, and 100 attacks with
butyric acid ("
stink bombs").[sup]
[12][/sup] The
New York Times also cites over one hundred clinic bombings and incidents of arson, over three hundred invasions, and over four hundred incidents of vandalism between 1978 and 1993.[sup]
[16][/sup] The first clinic arson occurred in
Oregon in March 1976 and the first bombing occurred in February 1978 in
Ohio.[sup]
[17][/sup] Incidents have included:
- December 25, 1984: An abortion clinic and two physicians' offices in Pensacola, Florida were bombed in the early morning of Christmas Day by a quartet of young people (Matt Goldsby, Jimmy Simmons, Kathy Simmons, Kaye Wiggins) who later called the bombings "a gift to Jesus on his birthday."[sup][18][/sup][sup][19][/sup][sup][20][/sup] The clinic, the Ladies Center, would later be the site of the murder of Dr. John Britton and James Barrett in 1994 and a firebombing in 2012.
- May 21, 1998: Three people were injured when acid was poured at the entrances of five abortion clinics in Miami, Florida.[sup][21][/sup]
- October 1999: Martin Uphoff set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, causing US$100 worth of damage. He was later sentenced to 60 months in prison.[sup][22][/sup]
- May 28, 2000: An arson at a clinic in Concord, New Hampshire resulted in several thousand dollars' worth of damage. The case remains unsolved.[sup][23][/sup][sup][24][/sup][sup][25][/sup] This was the second arson at the clinic.[sup][26][/sup]
- September 30, 2000: John Earl, a Catholic priest, drove his car into the Northern Illinois Health Clinic after learning that the FDA had approved the drug RU-486. He pulled out an ax before being forced to the ground by the owner of the building, who fired two warning shots from a shotgun.[sup][27][/sup]
- June 11, 2001: An unsolved bombing at a clinic in Tacoma, Washington destroyed a wall, resulting in $6,000 in damages.[sup][22][/sup][sup][28][/sup]
- July 4, 2005: A clinic Palm Beach, Florida was the target of an arson. The case remains open.[sup][22][/sup]
- December 12, 2005: Patricia Hughes and Jeremy Dunahoe threw a Molotov cocktail at a clinic in Shreveport, Louisiana. The device missed the building and no damage was caused. In August 2006, Hughes was sentenced to six years in prison, and Dunahoe to one year. Hughes claimed the bomb was a "memorial lamp" for an abortion she had had there.[sup][29][/sup]
- September 13, 2006 David McMenemy of Rochester Hills, Michigan, crashed his car into the Edgerton Women's Care Center in Davenport, Iowa. He then doused the lobby in gasoline and started a fire. McMenemy committed these acts in the belief that the center was performing abortions; however, Edgerton is not an abortion clinic.[sup][30][/sup] Time magazine listed the incident in a "Top 10 Inept Terrorist Plots" list.[sup][31][/sup]
- April 25, 2007: A package left at a women's health clinic in Austin, Texas, contained an explosive device capable of inflicting serious injury or death. A bomb squad detonated the device after evacuating the building. Paul Ross Evans (who had a criminal record for armed robbery and theft) was found guilty of the crime.[sup][32][/sup]
- May 9, 2007: An unidentified person deliberately set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Virginia Beach, Virginia.[sup][33][/sup]
- December 6, 2007: Chad Altman and Sergio Baca were arrested for the arson of Dr. Curtis Boyd's clinic in Albuquerque. Altman's girlfriend had scheduled an appointment for an abortion at the clinic.[sup][34][/sup][sup][35][/sup]
- January 22, 2009 Matthew L. Derosia, 32, who was reported to have had a history of mental illness[sup][36][/sup] rammed an SUV into the front entrance of a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota.[sup][37][/sup]
- January 1, 2012 Bobby Joe Rogers, 41, firebombed the American Family Planning Clinic in Pensacola, Florida with a Molotov cocktail; the fire gutted the building. Rogers told investigators that he was motivated to commit the crime by his opposition to abortion, and that what more directly prompted the act was seeing a patient enter the clinic during one of the frequent anti-abortion protests there. The clinic had previously been bombed at Christmas in 1984 and was the site of the murder of Dr. John Britton and James Barrett in 1994.[sup][38][/sup]
- April 1, 2012 A bomb exploded on the windowsill of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, resulting in a fire that damaged one of the clinic's examination rooms. No injuries were reported. On April 3, the FBI arrested 50-year-old Francis Grady on charges of "arson of a building used in interstate commerce" and "intentionally damaging the property of a facility that provides reproductive health services".[sup][39][/sup]
