Jane’s revenge “first statement” was posted online on May 8, the same day the vacant headquarters of the anti-abortion group, Wisconsin Family Action, was set on fire and just days after the Supreme Court’s decision was overturned. Ro Officially released. A message was left in cursive spray paint on the building: ‘If abortions are not safe, neither are you.’
Fox News quickly turned its on-air coverage of the “pro-choice extremist group Jane’s Revenge” into a repeat. Facebook has designated the group a “level 1” dangerous organization – a designation typically given to terrorists, hate groups and criminal syndicates.
Considering that the events of the winter and autumn were themselves relatively superficial destruction of property, there was a remarkable level of outrage. The FBI is currently seeking information on 10 cases of arson and vandalism at anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers around the country. By comparison, in 2021 alone, abortion providers reported 123 vandalism incidents, 123 assaults or batteries, 28 stalking incidents, 16 burglaries, 13 robberies and 9 bomb threats, according to data kept by the National Abortion Federation. (For perspective, since 1977 there have been 11 murders, 42 bombings, 196 arsons, 491 assaults at abortion facilities.)
Yet as a right-winger, Jane’s revenge proved surprisingly powerful: The new House GOP, in one of its first official acts, passed a resolution condemning “recent attacks on pro-life institutions, groups and churches.” (Republican leadership refused to allow a vote on a separate measure proposed by Democrats that would condemn violence against both crisis pregnancy centers and abortion facilities.)
Now, Fox News’ coverage of Jane’s Revenge and the conservative lobbying campaign against Merrick Garland seems to be paying off. Last week, the FBI announced a $25,000 reward for information about the incidents. Two days after that, the Justice Department announced the first arrests of individuals involved in cases where Jayne’s revenge was taken credit — and prosecutors announced plans to use a law aimed at protecting access to abortion.
This week the DOJ is Caleb Freestone, 27, and Amber Smith-Stewart, 23. Freestone and Smith-Stewart are accused of defrauding three Florida crisis pregnancy centers: Miami’s ‘Respect Life’ facility in Hollywood, Pregnancy Help Medical Clinics in Hialeah, and Life Choice Pregnancy Center in Winter Haven. All three offer pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, and advise women not to terminate their pregnancies. Prosecutors accused Freestone and Smith-Stewart of conspiring to “harm, oppress, threaten, and intimidate employees of facilities that provide reproductive health services.” (Freestone and Smith-Stewart could not be reached for comment; attorney Alex Saiz, who currently represents both, disclosed the case in a separate counterclaim.) A rolling stone (He advises his clients not to talk about it publicly.)
Interestingly, the defendant will now be charged under the Free Access to Clinic Access Act: a proposed law to protect access to reproductive health services. The FACE Act was passed in 1994 in the wake of large-scale clinic blockades by the militant group Operation Rescue, when hundreds of anti-abortion protesters gathered to block patients trying to enter health facilities.
If a flawed law intended to protect health care providers from threats of violence against abortionists sounds like misguided use, Julie Abbate, former deputy chief of special litigation in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, says it’s not. “It’s really a content-neutral rule. Abate, who has prosecuted violations of the FACE Act during her 15 years at the DOJ, doesn’t take that attitude into account.
The law itself is a bipartisan law: In addition to language expressly protecting facilities that offer abortions, the law also prevents bans in front of “places of worship” — a provision added to broaden political support for the law. “One of the main ways we’ve used it to protect it is by saying content is neutral,” says Abate.)
My father said she knew of only one other case where the FACE Act had previously been used at a crisis pregnancy center. But this is not a lack of interest in prosecutors. Abate says, “Any case where we find out that he has violated the FACE law, we will try to present the case at all.” “no way. There is no question of who the people are, their views, or where they are, whether it’s an abortion clinic, an emergency pregnancy center, or a place of worship.
During her time at the DOJ, Abe actively pursued any case her team deemed qualified as a violation of the FACE Act, including crisis pregnancy centers and places of worship—at the time, GOP senators like Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) He pressured the DOJ to act — but there weren’t many reports of incidents in those areas. From that point of view, at least, it looks like Jane’s Revenge finally gave the Republicans what they wanted.
Don’t expect this issue to mean the GOP will approve the bill. The same week the DOJ announced the Florida charges, Biden administration lawyers appeared in a Philadelphia court to present arguments in a separate Fess Act trial: Mark Hook, a prominent anti-abortion activist, was charged with raping a 72-year-old clinic attendant. Outside of Early Parenthood Philadelphia. Hawke’s accusations have turned into excuses on the right, with Jim Jordan suggesting he intends to make the case a focal point of the House GOP’s re-election committee on “weapons of government.”