Lawmakers debate violence against abortion clinics, anti-abortion pregnancy centers
Republicans at a U.S. House hearing aired frustration with the Department of Justice this week for what they contended is a lack of enforcement of a Clinton-era law that protects access to reproductive health care at anti-abortion pregnancy centers and abortion clinics.
GOP lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee expressed anger the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. attorneys don’t bring more charges against people who vandalize, graffiti or burn down anti-abortion facilities, often known as crisis pregnancy centers.
Democrats on the GOP-controlled subcommittee that held the hearing contended health care clinics that provide abortion services face the greater danger and that U.S. lawmakers should condemn acts of violence regardless of whether they are aimed at anti-abortion pregnancy centers or abortion facilities.
“Violence, threats and intimidation tactics should have no place in our political discourse, including in our nation’s ongoing debate over abortion access,” said Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, the ranking member on the panel. “We must condemn all political violence and threats of violence, whatever the beliefs or motivations of those who engage in it and regardless of who the target may be.”
Scanlon chided her GOP colleagues during the hearing for focusing their questions and inviting witnesses based on their belief the Biden administration isn’t doing all it could to prosecute people who attack anti-abortion pregnancy centers under a federal law known as the FACE Act.
“By convening a hearing that inflames grievances and amplifies misinformation concerning the prevalence of violence against anti-abortion forces, this hearing does not advance our congressional duty to protect and preserve our democracy,” Scanlon said.