Clinics offering abortions face a rise in threats, violence and legal battles

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/04/07/ [login to see] /clinics-offering-abortions-face-a-rise-in-threats-violence-and-legal-battles
Thirty years ago, Blue Mountain Clinic Director Willa Craig stood in front of the sagging roof and broken windows of an abortion clinic that an arsonist had burned down early that morning in Missoula, Montana.

"This morning, Missoula, Montana, learned that there is no place in America that is safe from hateful, misguided groups," she told the crowd of reporters and onlookers.

The 1993 fire at Blue Mountain Clinic was part of a particularly violent period of anti-abortion attacks in the U.S. that continued through the 1990s and 2000s, when clinics were bombed and abortion providers killed. Now, less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, rhetorical and physical attacks have increased against clinics that still provide abortions in conservative-led states.

The U.S. Justice Department formed a Reproductive Rights Task Force after last year's Supreme Court decision, in part to bring more attention to anti-abortion violence and threats. Since 2011, the DOJ has prosecuted dozens of criminal and civil cases over obstructing access to, threatening, or damaging abortion clinics. It charged 26 people in 2022 — more than in the previous three years combined.