A New York pro-life pregnancy center was attacked for the second time late last week after being firebombed last year following the leak of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
CompassCare, the pregnancy center in Buffalo, New York, released footage and pictures showing someone spray-painting “LIARS” in red on the organization’s sign on March 16. The Amherst Police Department announced it is investigating the incident.
“Ahead of a US District Court Ruling potentially outlawing the chemical abortion drug, in Antifa/Jane’s Revenge style, consistent with the message of Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James, CompassCare’s sign was vandalized in red-letter graffiti saying ‘LIARS,’” CompassCare CEO Rev. Jim Harden said in a statement on Monday.
“This fits the definitions of domestic terror. Those in the FBI and DOJ who refuse to treat it as such need to be fired and investigated. This is an act of intimidation and a violation of the FACE Act,” Harden said immediately following the attack. “America needs to return to a civilized order. CompassCare dignifies women with true choice and there’s nothing Antifa can do to make us stop. All people are made in the image of God and are equally valuable—both the mother and the child. The love of God triumphs over terror.”
New York Senator Rob Ortt (R) called on Gov. Kathy Hochul take action following the second attack on CompassCare, calling the incident “intolerable.”
Ortt said:
It is maddening to learn that early Thursday morning, there was yet another criminal incident at CompassCare in Amherst. Last summer, CompassCare was firebombed, leaving the building destroyed. At that time, I called on Governor Hochul to use her resources, including the New York State Police, to investigate this violent incident and provide the same level of security that other women’s health clinics receive – and ought to receive – in this state. The Governor unfortunately ignored my request, and here we are again.
This morning, I repeat my calls for the Governor to utilize all resources at her disposal, including the State Police, to investigate this incident and hold the perpetrators responsible. Any criminal act against a women’s health facility, whether pro-life or pro-choice, is intolerable and must be treated with the utmost seriousness.
The vandalism comes after shadowy suspects threw Molotov cocktails into CompassCare’s Buffalo office on June 7 and scrawled, “Jane was here” on the side of the building — a slogan used to pay fealty to the radical pro-abortion group Jane’s Revenge. CompassCare said the attack injured two firefighters and caused half a million dollars in damage.
No one has been arrested for firebombing CompassCare last year, and Harden has repeatedly accused the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of playing political games and slow-walking justice. Five months after the first attack and a week after the midterm elections, in which abortion played a central role, FBI Buffalo announced a $25,000 reward to anyone who can give the agency information leading to arrests. With no arrests made, CompassCare announced in January that it was partnering with the Thomas More Society to hire private investigators and find the perpetrators.
“It is a sad day when private citizens are left to do the work of law enforcement. If the FBI is being used for political purposes, all investigative efforts should turn on them. The organization should be defunded and those involved indicted for conspiracy to deprive pro-life citizens of their rights,” Harden said at the time.
Harden said that he reached out to the FBI on February 20, before his organization was attacked again, with concerns that “another wave of pro-abortion Antifa violence was coming” because of a case in Texas which could see the abortion pill taken off the market. Harden said he did not receive a response.
Following the attack, Harden slammed the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI for “actively de-prioritizing investigations into pro-life organizations like CompassCare.”
“These investigations are handled by the DOJ’s Civil Rights division which is headed up by Kristen Clarke, a known Antifa sympathizer and public hater of pro-life pregnancy centers,” he said. “Attorney General Merrick Garland is covering for her by ridiculously lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee saying the FBI cannot make arrests because, ‘Those attacking the pregnancy resource centers…are doing this at night, in the dark….’”
FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing in November 2022 that approximately 70 percent of abortion-related threats of violence in the United States since the Dobbs decision have been against pro-life groups, although he denied that the FBI and DOJ are unevenly enforcing the law.
But despite pro-life groups facing more attacks, the DOJ indicted at least 26 pro-life activists in 2022, while only two pro-abortion activists appear to have faced the same treatment. When confronted with those numbers at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this month, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland admitted that the DOJ has prosecuted more pro-life activists than pro-abortion extremists following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, and blamed the timing of alleged crimes for the discrepancy.
“I will say, you are quite right: there are many more prosecutions with respect to blocking of the abortion centers. But that is generally because those actions are taken with photography at the time, during the daylight, and seeing the person who did it is quite easy,” Garland told Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).
“Those who are attacking the pregnancy resource centers, which is a horrid thing to do, are doing this at night, in the dark. We have put full resources on this. We have put rewards out for this. The Justice Department and the FBI have made outreach to Catholic and other organizations to ask for their help in identifying the people who are doing this,” Garland continued.
The list of pro-life organizations and churches that have been attacked by pro-abortion extremists continues to grow. According to CatholicVote, at least 83 pregnancy centers and pro-life groups have been attacked since the Dobbs decision was leaked, as well as 141 Catholic churches.
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