Where Pro-Choice Groups Chose Vandalism

The crisis pregnancy center in Winter Haven, Florida, was hit the night after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. When the sun came up, the scrawled, spray painted messages were visible from one end of the outside wall to the other: YOUR TIME IS UP; WE’RE COMING FOR U; WE ARE EVERYWHERE; JANE WAS HERE.

Similar messages marred pro-life clinics in 24 states. The rash of vandalism started around the May 2022 leak of a Supreme Court draft of the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and continued throughout the year and into 2023. More than 50 clinics across the country reported graffiti and broken windows, with damage sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars. Six clinics were also set on fire.

A leaderless terrorist organization named Jane’s Revenge claimed much of the credit.

“This was only a warning,” the group said in a “first communiqué” sent after a firebombing in Wisconsin. “We will not stop, we will not back down, nor will we hesitate to strike until the inalienable right to manage our own health is returned to us.”

According to Jane’s Revenge, the “extreme tactics” are justified in part by pro-life extremists’ attacks on abortion clinics—which once averaged about 10 bombings and arsons per year.

Four people, all in their 20s, have been arrested for the attack in Winter Haven. Two others have been arrested for attacks in New York and Wisconsin. All face federal charges under a law Bill Clinton signed to protect abortion clinics in 1994.

“Our people have genuine and deeply felt differences on the subject of abortion,” the president said at the time. “But we must all agree that as a nation we must remain committed to the rule of law. It is what keeps us civilized. It is what enables us to live together.”