(UnitedVoice.com) – When the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization draft opinion leaked in 2022, it caused outrage across the country. Attacks on churches and pro-life centers also began to happen more frequently. The FBI is now taking action to crack down on offenders.
On January 19, the FBI National Press Office notified the public the agency is seeking citizens’ help in identifying individuals who have instituted a series of attacks aimed at pro-life pregnancy centers. The federal agency is offering rewards amounting to as much as $25,000 for information leading to arrests and convictions of offenders. According to the press release, authorities will investigate the crimes as violent criminal matters, domestic extremism, or violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act).
The FBI Buffalo field office shared the announcement on Twitter and included a video of one of the crimes. The footage showed a masked man pull up to one of the clinics, grab something out of the car’s trunk, and then smash the building’s windows. He then appeared to throw a Molotov cocktail into one of the windows, causing a fire.
The #FBI is offering $25,000 rewards in 10 different arson cases across the country.
Reproductive health service facilities were targeted.
One of those cases is in #Buffalo: CompassCare.
If you have info:
📞1-800- Call-FBI
💻https://t.co/37IHDoa94Ehttps://t.co/7qKHw0shWD pic.twitter.com/VNnEVhyaYO— FBI Buffalo (@FBIBuffalo) January 21, 2023
FBI Director Christopher Wray said the announcement demonstrates his agency’s “commitment to vigorously pursue investigations into crimes against pregnancy resource centers.” He promised continued cooperation with local and state authorities to hold suspected criminals responsible for using “extremist views to justify their criminal actions.”
Critics have accused the FBI of failing to act quickly enough. James Harden, president of an Amherst, New York, clinic attacked in June, told the Catholic News Agency in September that the FBI was treating the crimes like “some sort of bubble gum theft.”
The FBI asks community members with information about a crime to contact their local FBI office (they can do so anonymously), call 1-800-225-5324, or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov.
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