DeGette Calls to Condemn Anti-Choice Violence

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado took the podium on January 11, 2023, on the first session of the 118th Congress, to challenge a GOP resolution “condemning the recent attacks on pro-life facilities, groups, and churches.”

It goes on to list 35 to 40 incidents—depending on how you count them—in which protestors vandalized, destroyed property, and committed arson against organizations commonly called “pregnancy crisis centers,” which vaguely present themselves as offering reproductive services, but instead are aimed at convincing pregnant people not to have abortions. The resolution also mentions an incident at the Arizona State Capitol where protestors gathered during procedures where legislators were determining whether conflicting laws meant that getting an abortion could mean prison time.

During the demonstration, some protestors began banging on the windows of the Arizona Capitol Building. Legislators evacuated to the basement of the building briefly and resumed after SWAT teams tear-gassed and dispersed the protestors. The resolution says these protestors “breached the Arizona State Capitol,” which they did not.

In response, Reps. DeGette, Barbara Lee, and Ayanna Pressley drafted a resolution outlining and condemning the anti-choice violence leveled against reproductive health clinics and healthcare workers since 1977. DeGette introduced the resolution with this speech:

Madam Speaker,

If my republican colleagues want to condemn the growing level of political violence in this country, let’s do it. But that’s not what this resolution does. What it does, it goes to great lengths to condemn attacks against anti-choice groups, and it says nothing about the growing threat of violence targeting women’s health clinics across the United States. It doesn’t condemn the numerous bullets that have been fired at health care clinics throughout the country. It doesn’t condemn the bricks that have crashed through windows at provider’s offices, or the assaults, kidnappings and even the murders of doctors and health care personnel. It doesn’t condemn the arsons, bombings, death threats—or any one of the more than 7,000 acts of violence—that have been reported against these facilities.

By ignoring these acts of violence, republicans are sending a very dangerous message that will only embolden the extremists behind them. That’s why, I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a resolution Congresswomen Lee, Pressley, and I have introduced to condemn all acts of political violence–regardless of their target or intent—and I would urge my colleagues to support it instead.

It is interesting to note that the GOP’s original resolution stated that over 100 “pro-life facilities, groups, and churches” had been vandalized and had property destroyed since the repeal of Roe v. Wade, which averages out to about one violent act every 2.5 days in that time period. In the challenging resolution, Reps. DeGette, Lee, and Pressley cite nearly 7,000 instances of violence against reproductive health centers between 1977 and 2015, “including bombings, arsons, death threats, kidnappings, and assaults.” This averages out to about one violent act every 1.9 days in that time period.

In addition, the GOP brings forward no reports of assaults, murders, shootings, or bombings, all of which have been leveled at reproductive health care providers and are cited in the challenging resolution.

To clarify, this means that, even after the biggest blow to reproductive rights in the U.S. in living memory, pro-choice protestors have not touched the level of anti-choice violence that has become commonplace over the last four decades. But these are the violent acts the GOP wants to condemn.

Photo courtesy of Diana DeGette