Author’s Note – June 29, 2022: I’m happy to report that 53 days after the vandalism began and after multiple tweets from us and others calling for Planned Parenthood to condemn it, they finally did. On June 24, the day that Roe and Casey were overturned and the day that Jane’s Revenge threatened a “night of rage,” Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the Liberate Abortion Campaign released a joint statement that began by saying:
We reject the tactics and threats of groups that use destruction and violence as a means to an end. They do not speak for us, our supporters, our communities, or our movement. We are committed to protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive freedoms through peaceful, non-violent organizing and activism.
I applaud them for finally doing the right thing. Unfortunately, the rest of the statement was awful, focusing on how pro-lifers are typically the violent ones and that groups like ours don’t really care about violence, that we instead just want to score political points. (For the record, political points are not at all the reason we started shining a light on Jane’s Revenge and the lack of response from groups like Planned Parenthood.) If anything, some of the Jane’s Revenge extremists may read into the rest of Planned Parenthood’s statement a defense of what they’re doing. Either way, much of the good of the beginning of the statement was reduced by the rest of it, and if pro-life organizations released analogous statements when violence happens at abortion facilities, you better believe there’d be an outcry.
Having said that, Planned Parenthood finally, and technically, did the thing we called on them to do, and therefore we feel obligated to update this post with that information. It shouldn’t have taken 53 days, but we’re glad that they finally said something against vandalism.
Author’s Note – June 16, 2022: I’ve just become aware that Sarah Stoesz, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, called the attack on the Agape PRC in Des Moines “completely unacceptable.” Her full comment is: “We strongly condemn violence in all of its forms,” she said. “That is not to say that we agree with the mission of crisis pregnancy centers. We absolutely do not, but responding to them with violence is unacceptable.” We commend Sarah Stoesz for that condemnation of the violence. We wish the national Planned Parenthood accounts would do the same, and hopefully they will soon.
This is DAY 39 since the first firebombing of a pro-life office in Madison, WI. There have been at least 3 other firebombings and at least 37 other incidents of vandalism since May 2nd. Planned Parenthood has yet to condemn any of this. And yet, on May 31st Planned Parenthood tweeted in memory of Dr. George Tiller, an abortion practitioner who was murdered 13 years ago. We agree that Dr. Tiller should not have been murdered, and ERI—along with basically every pro-life organization—openly condemned this along with all other violence by people who claim the pro-life position. But by the time Planned Parenthood posted this, there had already been 31 incidents of firebombing and vandalism of pregnancy resource centers, pro-life offices, and churches, the majority of which were done by pro-choice domestic terrorist group Jane’s Revenge. As pro-lifers, we are against this violence: all of this violence. Planned Parenthood: do you condemn this, or are you only against violence done to your side? You’ll condemn the killing of George Tiller, but you won’t condemn firebombings and vandalism against pro-lifers, and you won’t condemn an attempted murder of Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh?
(@LilaGraceRose/Image via Twitter)
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