|
 The 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act makes
it a federal crime to injure, intimidate, or interfere with those
seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health care services.
That includes not just murder, assault, arson, and property damage,
but also death threats, burglaries, harassing phone calls, hate
mail, and blockades. The FBI helps investigate these crimes, working
closely with a variety of law enforcement partners and the Department
of Justice.
Do these crimes actually
happen? Yes. Eric Rudolph killed a police officer and critically
wounded a nurse when he bombed an abortion
clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1998. That same year, a New York
doctor who ran a well-known reproductive services clinic was shot
and killed in his home by a single sniper’s bullet. In 1994,
John Salvi shot and killed two Boston abortion clinic workers and
wounded five others. In recent years, we’ve seen a rise in
bio-terrorism threats (especially hoax anthrax letters) directed
at reproductive health care providers.
Learn more
here about the FACE law and the National Task Force set up
in 1998 to coordinate the investigation and prosecution
of these crimes. |
