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Active-duty Marine arrested for 2022 abortion clinic firebombing as violence against clinics surges [1]

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Date: 2023-06-15

California Marine Chance Brannon, 23, and literal partner in crime Tibet Ergel, 21, currently face federal charges of “using an explosive or fire to damage real property affecting interstate commerce” after allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at a Planned Parenthood in Costa Mesa, California—where abortion remains legal and widely accessible.

What Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito couldn’t do with his poison word processor and stack of 17th century “Witch-Burning for Dummies” books is currently being handled by the right’s forced-birth shock troops. The Wednesday arrest of the Marine—who was stationed just 50 miles from the clinic at Camp Pendleton—and his friend was in connection with the March 2022 firebombing of a Planned Parenthood clinic, an incident that occurred roughly two months before Alito’s notorious Dobbs decision ended blanket protections for pregnant people across the country.

It’s just the latest evidence that abortion rights are not only endangered by right-wingers in state legislatures, but by the vigilantes their movement has inspired as well.

RELATED STORY: New poll shows abortion could sink Republican hopes in 2024

Jezebel:

Federal authorities opened an investigation into Brannon and Ergul in April after the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received evidence from a witness who knew them in high school. Brannon and Ergul allegedly sent a photo of the Molotov cocktail they used to firebomb the clinic to the witness, who then contacted the FBI—notably, after the agency offered a reward of $25,000 for information leading to an arrest for the arson.

Well, no one ever accused forced-birthers of being particularly bright. Maybe sending photos of your crime weapon to a high school rando isn’t quite as bad as announcing over and over on national television that you’ve committed all the crimes, but it’s not going to win you a MacArthur genius grant either.

Surveillance footage from the clinic shows the two men alleged to be Ergul and Brannon dressed in hooded sweatshirts and face masks arriving at the clinic at around 1 a.m. on March 13, 2022. Upon throwing the Molotov cocktail at the clinic entrance, a fire spread across the walls and ceilings, ultimately forcing it to shut down for a morning and cancel roughly 30 appointments. Brannon and Ergul face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Of course, while this incident occurred pre-Dobbs, it was a precursor of sorts to a new wave of forced-birther violence that’s seemingly gained momentum in the wake of the Supreme Court decision to vaporize Roe v. Wade. In the wake of that ruling, we’ve seen an increase in attacks on clinics in states where the procedure remains available.

NPR:

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 FBI is also investigating a series of abortion clinic arsons, primarily in states that have maintained or bolstered abortion access since the June 24 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision overturning Roe. The increase in violence has led abortion-rights advocates to worry that more violence could be coming if the fringes of a fragmented anti-abortion movement become impatient with judicial and political efforts to ban and restrict abortion.

Violent incidents have actually been rising since 2020, with reports of stalking, clinic invasions, and assaults up significantly from 2020 through 2021, according to the National Abortion Federation.

In May 2022, shortly after Alito’s draft decision was leaked, but before it was official, National Abortion Federation chief program officer Melissa Fowler noted that threats were already ticking up, and she expected more to come.

“Let’s be clear—many of the people who perpetrate these attacks against abortion providers are members of known extremist and white supremacist organizations, and are the same people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 to try and overthrow the government,” said Fowler. “In the wake of the recently leaked Supreme Court decision, our members across the country have already experienced an escalation in harassment and threats and, unfortunately, we expect the situation to worsen once a formal opinion has been released.”

Unfortunately, Fowler’s assessment was spot-on. According to the NAF, for the third year straight, major incidences of violence and disruption at abortion clinics increased significantly in 2022. The organization reported a “rise in major incidents like arson, burglaries, death threats, and invasions with burglary (231%), stalking (229%), and arson (100%) seeing some of the largest increases.”

“The data is proof of what we have known to be true: anti-abortion extremists have been emboldened by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the cascade of abortion bans that followed. As clinics closed in states with bans, extremists have simply shifted their focus to protective states, where our members have reported major increases in assaults, stalking, and burglaries,” said Fowler.

RELATED STORY: 'Could she or I go to jail for this?' Doctors bemoan wave of abortion laws

As the first anniversary of the Dobbs decision approaches, we need to be aware that it’s not just Republicans’ wildly unpopular policies that are making sex an unnecessarily risky endeavor for millions of Americans. Their overheated rhetoric and cynical culture warring is terrorizing innocent—and often desperate—people, too.

And it has for a long time.

x 14 years ago today, my boss and mentor Dr. George Tiller was assassinated at his Wichita church by an anti-abortion terrorist. Dr. Tiller dedicated his life to providing abortion care to the patients who needed him, and his commitment inspired me to keep pushing in the face of… pic.twitter.com/1WleKhhkGR — Julie Burkhart (@julieburkhart) May 31, 2023

If only there were a way to turn the cultural tide. If only.

RELATED STORY: Trump and Republicans are terrified of their signature issue: Abortion bans

Check out Aldous J. Pennyfarthing’s four-volume Trump-trashing compendium, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link. Or, if you prefer a test drive, you can download the epilogue to Goodbye, Asshat for the low, low price of FREE.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/15/2175582/-Active-duty-Marine-arrested-for-2022-abortion-clinic-firebombing-as-violence-against-clinics-surges

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