Wisconsin Planned Parenthood Bombing Draws FBI Vow To Protect Public Access To Abortion Clinics

In the wake of the Planned Parenthood bombing in Grand Chute, Wis., the Federal Bureau of Investigation has reaffirmed its commitment to protecting women's access to reproductive health facilities.

Teresa Carlson, special agent-in-charge of the FBI's Milwaukee office, announced the arrest of 50-year-old Francis Grady for "arson of a building used in interstate commerce" and "intentionally damaging the property of a facility that provides reproductive health services" on Tuesday. She said in a statement, "The FBI will always investigate and bring to justice anyone who resorts to violence as a means to harm, intimidate, or prevent the public's right to access reproductive health services."

Around 7:30 p.m. Sunday evening, a bomb was placed on the windowsill of a Grand Chute Planned Parenthood clinic -- one of the three Planned Parenthood facilities in the state that offers abortion services. The bomb went off, causing a fire at the clinic that damaged one of the exam rooms. No one was hurt.

Grand Chute law enforcement was able to track down Grady after his white SUV, which was spotted leaving the scene shortly after the bomb went off, was involved in a traffic accident nearby. Grady is scheduled to make his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Green Bay at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.

U.S. Attorney James Santelle, Eastern District of Wisconsin, will be prosecuting Grady. He said in a statement:

"When the Congress passed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act in 1994, it specifically empowered law enforcement to respond to those who engage in violent and other obstructive behaviors that interfere with access to reproductive services. The complaint that we filed today in federal court not only responds to the particular conduct of Francis Grady in committing arson at and causing damage to the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Grand Chute, but it also signals the continuing, strong commitment of federal, state, and local authorities to ensure access to clinics -- and to seek criminal penalties against anyone who would compromise that right."

Earlier on HuffPost:

Comments

[chefadam2006]

02:05 PM on 04/20/2012

This is domestic terrorism, as clear as the definition can be!!!!! the definition is as follows:
18 USC § 2331 (5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

This needs to be properly investigated, and prosecuted by the People of the United States!!!!!!!!

[eco bro]

12:56 PM on 04/12/2012

This is extremist terrorism! The government prosecutes environmental and animal rights activists as terrorists for arson and such and they get sent to high security federal prisons. Yet the same thing happening at planned parenthood is simply labelled arson. I guess these actions don't damage corporate profits enough to be terrorism.

[KeepClinicsSafe]

01:41 PM on 04/08/2012

Folks! Chill about HuffPo's use of "abortion clinic". The headline is NOT calling the PP office an abortion clinic, it is saying that in response to the anti-abortion motivated terrorist attack on this planned parenthood, the FBI is vowing to step up its protection of abortion clinics (i.e. facilities that provide abortion services and are targeted by anti-abortion extremists).

Keep in mind a headline is suppose to succinctly sum up what the article is really about. Take a chill pill folks :P

P.s. There ARE abortion clinics in the world. I work for one. While we DO provide gynecology services, we are primarily an abortion care facility. Most of our patients see us for pregnancy termination. We need to quit having such a negative reaction to the word abortion. I see a LOT of people uncomfortable with the term and that is concerning to me. 1 in 3 women will have an abortion. Treating the term as something dirty or secret gives even MORE power to the protesters. Don't let them make the word something we are ashamed of.

[brinniewales]

05:29 PM on 04/06/2012

Huff Post, what's wrong with this heading: Wisconsin Planned Parenthood Bombing Draws FBI Vow To Protect Public Access To Abortion Clinics?
If 3% of the services performed by PPFA are abortions, then 97% of the services are not. Perhaps you should have used the term "Family Planning Clinics" or "Reproductive Health Clinics" or just "Planned Parenthood Clinic".

[carolinevrescue]

05:48 PM on 04/06/2012

I was thinking the same thing.

[KeepClinicsSafe]

01:26 PM on 04/08/2012

I don't think this is entirely inaccurate. Unfortunately, Planned Parenthood is the number one target of the anti-abortion movement. Despite the reality of the scope of their abortion services (3%), they have somehow become a direct target.

The man who left the fire bomb outside of this PP did so because they provide abortion care. So not only is the headline accurate, its a relief! The FBI should be vowing to protect access to ANY facility that provides abortion care.

[mmiller459]

07:46 PM on 04/05/2012

The person who set the bomb off at this Planned Parenthood clinic needs to be sent to Guantanamo where all the other terrorists who plot and work against the United States are. I am going out on a limb and guessing that the bomber is a fanatical right wing religious zealot who is probably a card carrying member of the TP. If he does get sent there, what would the TP fascists say -- don't send him there, he's just a nice white guy who did wrong, or would they also condemn him to Gitmo? Somehow I am betting on the former rather than the latter.

[mamabeverley]

07:40 PM on 04/05/2012

The FBU better start arresting gov't officials then. All they have been doing is trying to block access by using intimidation.

[buggeroffyou666]

07:31 PM on 04/05/2012

Can we finally start profiling white male conservative christians yet?
The FBI has it on record that they do commit the most terrorist acts in America.

[dbrett480]

02:54 PM on 04/05/2012

Good work by the FBI.

[Dani09]

12:34 PM on 04/05/2012

Please contact HP and lodge your complaint about the use of the inflammatory and INACCURATE term "Abortion Clinic" in the headline. I just did.

[Exo Raluna]

12:31 PM on 04/05/2012

I have to agree with the headline "abortion clinic" being inflammatory. Don't we live in the 21st century?

[Iris Silver]

11:56 AM on 04/05/2012

Golly, FBI, it sure would be nice if you took safeguarding the health of people using the services of PP seriously in every state.
And the "abortion clinic" headline - intentionally misleading. Why do I see HuffPo leaning more towards the FauxSnooze style of reporting all the time?
Does Ailes run AOL as well?

[Tizzie Cregan]

09:51 AM on 04/05/2012

Still waitng for the Huff to change the headline from the horribly ignorant term of "abortion clinic" that is the kind of term andignorance that has spwned idiots that will bomb a woman's health clinic, putting women at risk in so many many ways.... come on huff!!!! You want to better than that don't you?

[Karissa36]

09:27 AM on 04/05/2012

White single man, age 50, arrested within 2 hours for a car accident, and charged with DUI. Another of a long series of losers, on the frontlines of the war against women's reproductive rights. It's like they clone these nuts, they are so alike. Enter stage right, (far far right), the usual procession of "religious" pro-lifers, to tell the press they don't condone violence, while continuing their inflammatory rhetoric, and calling him a hero behind closed doors.

Six months from now it will all happen again.

[istvan13]

08:05 AM on 04/05/2012

This fool should be tried as a domestic terrorism. This action appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population to follow a religious viewpoint.

Official United States Government Definition of Terrorism

"[An] act of terrorism, means any activity that (A) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; and (B) appears to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping."

[kykys2]

08:04 AM on 04/05/2012

That's all good and everything, but how are they going to make sure there's still clinics around to access with the GOP on the prowl?