Arson Suspected at Wyoming Abortion Clinic but Yes, Let’s Talk More About How Peaceful Pro-Choice Protests ‘Go Too Far’

A health clinic and abortion facility that was set to open in Casper, Wyoming next month was damaged in a fire this week, and police suspect the cause was arson.

Right now, Wyoming only has one medical facility that provides abortion services and it’s a hospital located hundreds of miles from Casper. According to HuffPost, Julie Burkhart, the director of the new clinic, said organizers “had been receiving harassing emails and telephone messages” leading up to its opening.

A Facebook post from the city’s police department reported someone witnessing “an individual running away from the building with a gas can and black bag,” adding, “At this time investigators believe the fire to be intentional.”

This sort of horrific violence and intimidation is nothing new for anti-abortion advocates. In fact Burkhart herself was a mentee of George Tiller, the doctor and leader in the abortion rights movement who was murdered by an anti-abortion extremist in 2009 at his Wichita, Kansas church.

In recent weeks, we’ve been forced to rehash tired discussions of “civility,” as voices on all points on the political spectrum wring their hands and clutch their pearls, wondering if peaceful protests outside of the homes of Supreme Court Justices are going too far in the fight for reproductive rights. Ted Cruz said that these protests were worse and more dangerous than January 6’s actual riot at the US Capitol; Congress almost immediately passed legislation offering increased security to justices and their families; and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas gave an entire speech applauding conservatives for choosing to “always act appropriately” in the war on abortion.

That was ridiculous when he said it earlier this month and this latest attack is just more proof as to why. Violence has always been a part of the war on reproductive freedoms. According to NARAL:

Between 1977 and 2015, anti-choice extremists directed more than 7,200 reported acts of violence at abortion providers. This included 42 bombings, 185 arson attacks, and thousands of death threats, bioterrorism threats and assaults. In addition, more than 234,300 acts of disruption were reported, including bomb threats, hate mail and harassing calls.

It wasn’t just anti-abortion pundits and politicians decrying peaceful protests at justices’ homes as being out of line. There was plenty of criticism coming from people who claim to support reproductive rights, though apparently just so long as attempts to maintain those rights don’t hurt the feelings of anyone in power, or risk hypothetically alienating more moderate allies—meaning supporters of certain human rights, under the right circumstances, as long as activists aren’t too aggressive, too challenging, or too much of a inconvenience.

Every single person who criticized peaceful protests in public residential streets can officially consider themselves excluded from this conversation if they are not now loudly condemning what is believed to be the deliberate, violent, dangerous destruction of a medical facility.

(image: Brandon Bell/Getty Images)