Subscribe to our RSS feed
Follow us on Twitter
A man slammed his SUV into the Planned Parenthood clinic on Ford Parkway in St. Paul early Thursday morning. Police say the man was an anti-abortion activist and was praying when they found him. Thursday was the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that found a right to privacy regarding abortion and therefore made abortion legal.
“It’s never happened before and we don’t expect it to happen again,” Sarah Stoesz, president of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, told the Star Tribune. “We certainly don’t expect this sort of thing.”
Anti-abortion activists mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade with marches and protests each year. This year, a march was planned for Thursday at the Minnesota State Capitol.
The clinic only suffered minor damage. Police say the man was an anti-abortion protester.
“That’s our belief — that it was an intentional act,” police spokesman Peter Panos told the Associated Press (AP). “Usually we have some demonstrations there on this day, but someone doing actual damage is very, very rare.”
“We think it’s intentional because of Roe vs. Wade,” Panos said. “He’s not saying much. He was praying or chanting when the officers arrived.”
Stoesz told the Star Tribune that very little of the clinic’s activities involve abortion. “The irony is that if those protesters, like this man, would help us assure all people have access to reproductive health care, it would reduce the need for abortions,” she said.
Leave a comment
Become a fan on Facebook
5 Comments »
Comment posted January 22, 2009 @ 11:02 pm
Who is the religious, extremist, terrorist now?
Comment posted January 22, 2009 @ 11:57 pm
I hope this is the end of right wing violence in the wake of Obama’s win. If it is, I will happily concede this one incident doesn’t amount to anything, and that almost every single pro-lifer protests peacefully. I can’t help however remembering the response to Clinton’s election, especially Oklahoma City, but also the nutcases shooting at the White House, the attempt to crash a plane into the White House, and the growth of private militias. In hope I’m wrong, I expect more violence from the right.
Comment posted February 4, 2009 @ 9:15 pm
So many of the mouth pieces for the far Right spew hatred and use violence in their speech. We can expect more acting out.
I fear for Obama’s life. There is so much hatred toward him from the Republican PR machine.
The most senior Republican congress man in a speech shortly after Clinton’s inauguration said the military should assassinate Clinton.
MSM said nothing. FBI did nothing. The man should have been thrown out of Congress and tried for treason. The Republicans just smiled and patted him on his back.
Thanks for remembering the plane crashed into the Clinton WH. That’s just one of many examples of suicidal and or airplane attack/highjackings that the Bush administration had never heard about and so didn’t protect us from prior to 911.
To paraphrase: Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat its biggest screw ups.
Comment posted March 13, 2009 @ 9:03 am
Violent speech? You don’t think the act of performing an abortion is violent. A baby ends up dead, that sounds violent to me.
Comment posted April 10, 2009 @ 9:33 pm
There’s no justification for a violent attack like this.
And there’s no justifying the unspeakable violence that occurs thousands of times daily in abortion clinics in the U.S. and around the world.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment