{"id":323126,"date":"2024-12-16T12:44:35","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T18:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=323126"},"modified":"2024-12-15T23:16:46","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T05:16:46","slug":"report-abortion-facing-violence-state-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/report-abortion-facing-violence-state-harassment\/","title":{"rendered":"Report claims abortion facilities are facing ‘violence’ and ‘state-sanctioned harassment’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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According to a new pro-abortion report, independent abortion facilities and abortionists are facing extreme violence and “state-sanctioned harassment” since the overturning of Roe v. Wade<\/em> in 2022. However, the majority of abortion-related attacks in the United States is being carried out by pro-abortion<\/em> extremists<\/em>, not pro-lifers.<\/p>\n

The report<\/a>, from the Abortion Care Network (ACN), was released on Tuesday and claims that abortion facilities have faced harassment, administrative burdens, and closures since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization<\/em>. ACN is comprised of abortion businesses that are not affiliated with Planned Parenthood or hospitals.<\/p>\n

“Staff and volunteers are exhausted, angry, and afraid as they face persistent extremist violence and state-sanctioned harassment in the form of threats of licensure revocation, astronomical fines, criminal charges, and even incarceration,” the report claims.<\/p>\n

70% of abortion-related attacks<\/b><\/p>\n

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act<\/a> \u201cprohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services\u2026 or other federal criminal statutes where arson, firearms, and threats were also used.\u201d This includes abortion businesses and pro-life pregnancy resource centers.<\/p>\n

The majority of abortion-related attacks since Roe<\/em> fell have been carried out by pro-abortion<\/em> extremists. In November 2022, mere months after Dobbs<\/em>, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that, since the Supreme Court’s draft opinion was leaked, 70%<\/strong>\u00a0of the abortion-related attacks<\/a> had been carried out by<\/em>\u00a0abortion supporters against pro-lifers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wray testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, \u201cMy view \u2014 plainly expressed to all of our people, including in the context of abortion-related violence \u2014 is that I don\u2019t care what side of the issue you\u2019re on, you don\u2019t get to engage in violence, and we are equal-opportunity when it comes to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, we have quite a number of investigations \u2014 as we speak \u2014 into attacks or threats against pregnancy resource centers, faith-based organizations, and other pro-life organizations. And you might be interested to know that since the Dobbs act decision, probably in the neighborhood of 70% of our abortion-related violence cases or threats cases are cases of violence or threats against [\u2026] pro-life organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most Americans wouldn’t know this to be the case, however, because the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) and its friends in the media have focused<\/a> on the efforts of pro-life activists, and claimed that their sit-in style protests are acts of violence. Meanwhile, pro-abortion activists have made threats of actual violence against pro-life organizations and participated in vandalism against pro-life organizations, including firebombing<\/a> (watch\u00a0news video<\/a>). At least 29 states plus Washington, D.C.<\/a>, experienced pro-abortion attacks on pro-life organizations and churches within just a few months of the Dobbs<\/em> draft decision leak.<\/p>\n

Yet the DOJ seemed to set its sights on pro-lifers. Congressman Chip Roy criticized the Biden-Harris DOJ for its apparent targeting of pro-lifers, saying, \u201c[N]early 92% of all Biden-Harris FACE Act cases were brought against pro-life demonstrators, despite over 285 churches<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a094 pregnancy resource centers and pro-life groups<\/a>\u00a0being attacked and vandalized since May 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, non-violent pro-life activists stood in front of abortion facilities, or entered abortion facilities and sat down, chained themselves to chairs, and prayed \u2014 and some were sentenced to years in prison for it.<\/p>\n

State-sanctioned harassment<\/strong><\/p>\n

As for the supposed “state-sanctioned harassment” faced by abortion facilities \u2014 the ACN report is referring to laws and the penalties for breaking those state laws.<\/em> It says this “harassment” comes “in the form of threats of licensure revocation, astronomical fines, criminal charges, and even incarceration” for killing a preborn child illegally.<\/p>\n

While there are no state pro-life laws that punish women who undergo abortions, laws do enact penalties for medical practitioners who kill preborn children. For example, in Texas<\/a>, a doctor who actively and deliberately kills a baby in the womb without an “affirmative defense” could lose his or her license (after the third offense) and face fines.<\/p>\n

In Louisiana<\/a>, purposefully<\/em> killing a baby in the womb could lead to imprisonment “at hard labor for not less than one year nor more than ten years and shall be fined not less than ten thousand dollars nor more than one hundred thousand dollars.”<\/p>\n

The state with the strictest<\/a> punishment for abortionists is Alabama, where a law passed in 2019 states that abortionists could spend up to 99 years in prison for intentionally killing a preborn baby.<\/p>\n

Put this in perspective: if a medical practitioner intentionally starved, dismembered, or lethally injected a newborn baby, we would expect penalties to be enacted. However, when medical practitioners do violence to the very same children prior<\/em> to birth,\u00a0 society calls it a “woman’s right” and considers it an affront to enact penalties for intentional killing.<\/p>\n