DOJ urged to act after Jane's Revenge declares 'open season' on pro-life organizations
Pro-life leaders and lawmakers are calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the wave of firebombings and vandalism targeting churches and pro-life pregnancy centers as a radical abortion activist group declared "open season" on pro-lifers.
Jane's Revenge, which has claimed responsibility for multiple recent acts of vandalism and arson, has published another communique that threatens the safety of pro-life activists and pregnancy centers.
The group had previously called for the "disbanding of anti-choice establishments, fake clinics, and violent anti-choice groups within the next thirty days" in a manifesto published last month.
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"Your thirty days expired yesterday," Jane's Revenge stated in the communique published on the anarchist website Abolition Media Tuesday. "We offered an honourable way out. You could have walked away. Now the leash is off. And we will make it as hard as possible for your campaign of oppression to continue."
The group recalled "how easy and fun it is to attack," listing off all the acts of vandalism it has claimed responsibility for in the past month, which includes Madison, Wisconsin; Fort Collins, Colorado; Reisertown, Massachusetts; Olympia, Washington; Lynwood, Washington; Asheville, North Carolina; Buffalo, New York; Frederick, Maryland; Denton, Texas and Portland, Oregon.
The group vowed that "from here forward, any anti-choice group who closes their doors, and stops operating will no longer be a target."
"But until you do, it's open season, and we know where your operations are. The infrastructure of the enslavers will not survive," the communique reads. "We will never stop, back down, slow down, or retreat. We did not want this; but it is upon us, and so we must deal with it proportionally. We exist in confluence and solidarity with all others in the struggle for complete liberation."
The group indicated that additional vandalism would extend beyond acts "easily cleaned up as fire and graffiti."
The rise in attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers and churches, as well as Jane's Revenge's first message, followed Politico's May 2 publication of a leaked draft opinion in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The leaked opinion, verified by the court, suggests that a majority of Supreme Court justices supported overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
The draft opinion is not final.
The pro-abortion activists affiliated with Jane's Revenge predict that if attacks keep happening, insurance companies and the financial backers of pro-life pregnancy centers and pro-life advocacy groups will "realize you are a bad investment."
The communique encouraged other pro-abortion activists to carry out their own acts of vandalism.
"Everyone with the urge to paint, to burn, to cut, to jam: now is the time," the communique added. "Go forth and manifest the things you wish to see. Stay safe and practice your cursive."
A group of pro-life leaders sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke, urging the agency to open an investigation into the acts of vandalism committed by Jane's Revenge and other abortion activists.
Led by Brian Burch of CatholicVote, the letter contends that "the relative silence from the Administration" on the vandalism "endangers Americans even more."
They called on the Justice Department to "publicly condemn these unlawful attacks; to commit to vigorous efforts to prevent them; and to investigate and prosecute them; and to proactively engage with the affected faith communities to ensure their concerns and security needs are being met."
Other signatories to the letter included Marjorie Dannenfelser of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, former Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Ben Carson, Ryan Anderson of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Jeannie Mancini of the March for Life Education & Defense Fund, Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life Action, Tony Perkins of Family Research Council and Penny Young Nance of Concerned Women for America.
Members of the U.S. Congress have also written to Garland demanding a stronger response from the Department of Justice. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., specifically mentioned Jane's Revenge in a letter to Garland the day after Jane's Revenge published its latest communique.
"The most recent statement by Jane's Revenge makes unmistakably clear that violence will soon follow if the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) does not act accordingly," he warned. "Despite the damage that has already been done and even though these groups have kept their promise to raise the violent stakes, the DOJ has not been faithful to its promise of ensuring the public's safety against these violent, radical activists."
"[T]here has not been a single charge brought against any individual or group despite the countless pro-life centers in America that have been firebombed and vandalized in recent months," Rubio insisted.
"[T]he DOJ and the Biden Administration can no longer remain silent."
Sixteen U.S. senators and more than 120 members of the House of Representatives wrote similar letters to Garland before Jane's Revenge's last statement expressing concern about the DOJ's handling of the pro-abortion violence.
The Department of Homeland Security published a memorandum last month warning that violent threats targeted at Supreme Court justices and others involved in the abortion debate, including politicians, members of the clergy and healthcare providers "are likely to persist and may increase leading up to and following the issuing in the court's official ruling" in Dobbs.
Should the Dobbs ruling overturn Roe, the legality of abortion will be decided on a state-by-state basis.
Twenty-one states will either completely ban or restrict abortion more severely than they do now, 16 states will continue to allow abortion throughout most or all of pregnancy because the right to abortion has been codified into law, 10 states will continue to enforce existing abortion laws and/or restrictions while the remaining three states could let voters weigh in on abortion policy at the ballot box in the near future.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]
