Abortion Clinics Still Under Physical Attack
As Supreme Court challenges to Roe v. Wade produce a pervasive haze of fear concerning reproductive rights protections, a steady stream of active physical threats against abortion clinics continues.
Wesley Brian Kaster, 43, of Columbia, Missouri, was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, after throwing a Molotov cocktail firebomb into a Planned Parenthood clinic on February 10, 2019. According to Planned Parenthood, the clinic was not providing abortion services at the time of the attack, due to a state law that was in effect.
While no one was injured in the arson attack which occurred in the early morning hours, prosecutors said that Kaster admitted to setting the fire "because Planned Parenthood provided reproductive health services at the facility." The damage was moderate, and the sprinkler system within the clinic was able to put out the fire before firefighters arrived.
A sentencing memorandum for Kaster describes him as a dedicated father of four with no past criminal history who served in the military for eight years. Prosecutors confirmed in court documents that the defendant served in the Navy from 1998 until 2006.
But, on Nov. 21, 2019, this seemingly innocuous father and military veteran pleaded guilty to one count of maliciously using explosive materials to damage a building owned by an organization that receives federal financial assistance, and one count of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
This last Monday, January 6, federal prosecutors charged 18-year-old, Samuel James Gulick, with three crimes connected to arson and vandalism after Guilick allegedly lit an incendiary device and chucked it through the front window of a Newark, Deleware, health clinic on January 3rd, 2022.
Before throwing the firebomb at the reproductive health clinic, Gulick allegedly scrawled the words, “Deus Vult” in red spray paint, just below a clinic sign that reads, “Heath Care Happens Here.” The phrase, which means “God wills it” in Latin, had two crudely drawn religious symbols, a Marian Cross on the left and a Chi Rho symbol, which was used by the Roman Emporer Constantine, on the right.
Investigators for the Deleware clinic bombing found links to far-right ideology on Gulick’s social media accounts, specifically a personal Instagram page that contained “strong antiabortion ideology,” even comparing the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade to the genocidal policies enacted by the Nazis in the Holocaust.
Gulick’s extremist hobbies also appear to have gone well beyond anti-abortion extremism. On Tuesday, an archived version of Gulick’s Instagram account surfaced showing references to other extreme ideologies, posts about guns, and veiled threats against abortion providers. In one post that compared Democrats who support access to abortion to Nazis, Gulick suggested murder: “When will we start shooting? It[‘]s about time we kill these genocidal demons.”
Gulick’s Instagram bio also allegedly included the “Deus Vult” phrase he was captured by security cameras spray-painting on the wall of the health clinic. The Latin slogan for “God wills it” was a battle cry used during the Crusades that has been linked to modern-day far-right activists and white supremacists who co-opted the phrase to hint at their fantasies about a religious war between Christians and Muslims.
“Deus Vult” and the accompanying Crusades-linked imagery were also present at the “Unite the Right” rally, which resulted in the vehicular homicide of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville in 2017. Medieval scholars insist that the use of Crusades-linked imagery by white supremacists is misrepresenting history to spread propaganda.
“By using imagined medieval symbols, or names drawn from medieval terminology, they create a fantasy of a pure, white Europe that bears no relationship to reality,” members of the Medieval Academy said in a statement after the “Unite the Right” rally. “This fantasy not only hurts people in the present, [but] it also distorts the past.”
The intentional distortion of the past in order to obscure the failed optics of the present seems to be the intention of these latest incarnations of a new white nationalist toy army. The medieval symbols that were recently used in the attack in Deleware have also been used by supporters of the newer far-right online movements known as “America First” or “Groyper Army.”
These latest incarnations of Neo-Nazisim purport to champion “traditional values” within conservatism, like immigration restrictionism, while targeting more mainstream conservative student groups like Turning Point USA. These pop-up armies typically seek to confront more centrist conservatives for shutting down “socially conservative Christians and supporters of President Trump’s agenda” and promoting “degeneracy” by having gay speakers.
Gulick’s “Dues Vult” action of last week goes well beyond social activism and heckling conservative speakers who are not seen as extremist enough. In a statement, Planned Parenthood called last week’s attack on the Deleware health clinic "an act of domestic terrorism."
Ruth Lytle-Barnaby, Planned Parenthood’s Chief Executive of Delaware, pointed out another alarming aspect of this latest attack: "Had we not had the security that we have and the building went up in flames, a lot of people could have been injured. Barnaby continued, “There's student housing that surrounds that building and people think that it's just a Planned Parenthood, but it's not —it's about the whole community."
Fire officials in Knoxville, Tennessee, confirmed last Thursday that a fire that destroyed a Planned Parenthood health center last month on December 31, 2021, was intentionally set. The clinic was nearing the end of a $2.2 million renovation and expansion project, according to Planned Parenthood officials and the damage has resulted in a total loss.
“This is an appalling and heartbreaking act of violence towards Planned Parenthood, our patients, and our community,” Ashley Coffield, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, said in a statement. Perhaps what makes this latest destruction so heartbreaking is that this is not the first time the clinic has suffered threats of violence.
On Jan. 22, 2021, the 48th nnniversary of Roe v. Wade, which recognized the constitutional right to an abortion, someone fired a shotgun into the front doors of the clinic. Investigators are still trying to identify whoever is responsible and have asked for the public’s help, the fire department said Thursday. A $10,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to prosecution. I would urge everyone to post this reward information to social media accounts, to help find the arsonist.
While it might be easy to give more slack on the hope rope that is getting increasingly difficult to manage, we can follow the lead of Planned Parenthood and CEO Ashley Coffield, who remains undeterred despite ongoing attacks and setbacks. “Although it will take time to rebuild, we are committed to our patients in East Tennessee,” said Coffield, “we will not let this attack take away the essential health care services on which they rely.”
You can make a donation to the Knoxville Planned Parenthood clinic here.
Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter and is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
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Moms basement, video games, and social media are not the right input for uneducated, bored, white males. Their underutilized gray matter is a Petri dish for unhealthy, unbalanced rationale that has no basis in fact.
If you think that it's bad now, just wait until the Supreme Court officially overrules Roe v. Wade.................