After several months, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) offered $25,000 rewards on Thursday to anyone who can provide information leading to arrest and conviction of suspects in several attacks against pro-life pregnancy resource centers across the country.
“Today’s announcement reflects the FBI’s commitment to vigorously pursue investigations into crimes against pregnancy resource centers, faith-based organizations, and reproductive health clinics across the country,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “We will continue to work closely with our national, state, and local law enforcement partners to hold responsible anyone who uses extremist views to justify their criminal actions.”
The agency said the attacks, which exploded following the leak and eventual release of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in June of 2022, could be investigated as potential acts of domestic violent extremism, Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) violations, or other violent crime matters depending on the facts of each case. Anyone with information may remain anonymous and is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), contact their local FBI office, or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.
The FBI is looking into a number of attacks, including a June 10, 2022 firebombing of Gresham Pregnancy Resource Center in Portland, Oregon, a May 8 firebombing of Oregon Right to Life in Portland, the June 27 arson of Two Hearts Pregnancy Aid in Seattle, Washington, and a number of other incidents in Wisconsin, New York, Tennessee, and Colorado. Many of the attacks have been claimed by the radical pr0-abortion group Jane’s Revenge.
The FBI’s announcement comes soon after a pro-life group announced that it was hiring private investigators to uncover who firebombed its Buffalo office in June. CompassCare cited months of “slow-walking” and “feign[ed] interest” from the FBI as its reason for launching an independent investigation.
When asked why the agency took so many months to make the announcement, the FBI told the Daily Signal:
The FBI leverages numerous investigative tools when conducting an investigation. Over time, some of our investigations may fall out of the public’s awareness. These rewards are being announced to bring increased public attention to these incidents with the goal of generating additional investigative leads for the FBI to pursue.
Since the leak of the Dobbs draft decision in May of 2022, at least 78 pro-life pregnancy centers have been attacked, vandalized or firebombed, according to an attack tracker kept by Catholic Vote. Even so, more than 200 House Democrats refused to vote for a resolution condemning recent violence against pro-life pregnancy centers, groups, and churches.
During a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee in November of 2022, Wray admitted that approximately 70 percent of abortion-related threats of violence in the United States since the Dobbs decision have been against pro-life groups.
Wray cited the statistic after Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) questioned him about accusations that the agency is more dedicated to arresting pro-life advocates than investigating violence perpetrated by pro-abortion extremists. At the time, the FBI had arrested several pro-life advocates (see here, here, and here) but had failed to bring justice in any of the pro-abortion attacks that occurred months prior. President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice had also established a “Reproductive Rights Task Force” to “protect access to reproductive health care” in anticipation for the end of Roe v. Wade, despite the fact that more pro-life organizations were experiencing attacks.
“My view — plainly expressed to all of our people, including in the context of abortion-related violence — is that I don’t care what side of the issue you’re on, you don’t get to engage in violence, and we are equal-opportunity when it comes to that,” Wray told Scott.
“We have about 20 field offices involved in this. And so we take it very seriously. And again, I don’t care you’re motivated by pro-life views or pro-choice views. You don’t get to use violence to express it,” he added.
Wray further told Scott that he gets “frustrated” by supposed “misreporting of our work.”
“The circumspection that we display with regard to discussing our investigations is based on rules and practices that are important to people having confidence in the integrity of our work and go back decades, multiple administrations,” he said.