Perpetrators of violence against women’s health centers must face justice
OPINION:
While some banged on drums and chanted outside the homes of some Supreme Court justices after last summer’s Dobbs decision, vandals lurked in the shadows outside over a hundred of the nation’s pregnancy resource centers. The rule of law compels two new lawsuits meant to hold accountable those who would be violent in disagreement.
Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed into law the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (“FACE”) Act in 1994. In addition to authorizing criminal penalties for those who attempt to prevent access to the nation’s reproductive health facilities, it also imposes certain civil penalties.
The law is quite clear: If you attempt to injure, intimidate, or interfere with access to a reproductive health facility — including those that save lives and protect women from abuse — you will be held accountable. Congress passed the FACE Act to enforce our nation’s commitment to the rule of law. Vigilante justice has no place in our country.
While the FACE Act has been used a smattering of times against those who wrongly attacked abortion facilities (and even some churches), it is being used for the first time in its history to hold the militant abortion access group Jane’s Revenge accountable. Following the Dobbs leak and decision, more than 100 pregnancy care centers — life-affirming reproductive health centers that provide faith-based counseling and free baby formula, diapers and clothing — found themselves under relentless, violent attack.
Vandals struck with bricks, rocks and even firebombs. With spray paint, they scrawled threats and messages of intimidation such as “if abortions aren’t safe, neither are you.” Then they publicly identified, or doxxed, the staff, board members and volunteers who give their time out of religious devotion to save the lives of babies and care for their mothers and families.
Our client, Heartbeat of Miami, even had two people hack their way into their computer system, giving them free access to the organization’s annual gala. Inside the event, they shouted obscenities, disparaged Heartbeat’s staff, volunteers and supporters, and leafleted the venue with propaganda, hoping to dissuade women from using Heartbeat’s services.
The staff, volunteers, supporters and clients of life-affirming reproductive health facilities should never fear for their lives or safety for simply providing free baby formula and diapers.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is now leading the effort to protect all reproductive health facilities across the country. In a lawsuit filed March 29, Ms. Moody seeks to impose the maximum civil penalties against the vandals who attacked the three Florida-based pregnancy care centers. First Liberty Institute commends Ms. Moody for her determination to hold these vandals, along with the broader network associated with Jane’s Revenge, accountable for the 100-plus attacks on life-affirming reproductive health facilities across the country since someone leaked the Dobbs decision.
Following her lead, First Liberty filed suit on behalf of Heartbeat of Miami. Vandals destroyed our client’s property, doxxed its director, and tried to intimidate its volunteers, donors and staff, all because they disagreed with their religious motivations to save lives and help mothers.
Singling out pregnancy resource centers for violence exhibits a hostility toward faith-based pregnancy centers that should be repugnant to everyone. Those who would target life-affirming reproductive health facilities must face legal penalties for their crimes.
President John Adams once explained that our republic is “a government of laws, not of men.” Nations committed to the rule of law can absorb disagreement and even improve our freedoms through our differences because a nation dedicated to the rule of law is one concerned with what is right.
Violence is never a proper response to political disagreement. Those who have used threats and violence to harass and intimidate must be held legally accountable. Applying the FACE Act to criminals associated with Jane’s Revenge ensures once again that our nation will not tolerate violence as a means to political ends.
• Jeremy Dys is senior counsel for First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit law firm dedicated to defending religious freedom for all. Learn more at FirstLiberty.org.
