An Army of “Lone Wolves”: The American Right’s War on Women’s Reproductive Rights

In my earliest memories, there were people bombing and terrorizing women’s health clinics. The anti-abortion crowd declared a war on women’s reproductive rights. I’m sure some of the people who declared it and who continue to fight it think they’re doing it for the precious babies, but you barely need to scrape a nail across the surface of their motivations to reveal the lie: if they really wanted to prevent abortion and help all those beautiful babies, they’d do much more than try to pass laws banning terminations and chuck a few free diapers at pregnant people. They’d be fighting tooth and nail to ensure everyone had access to safe, effective contraception. They’d be clamoring for laws strengthening the social safety net. They’d be pouring their hearts and funds into making sure children and parents have universal health care, robust food and housing programs, comprehensive education, affordable day care, and everything else it takes to help a baby be safely born, thrive, and become a successful adult.

Funny how their acute concern for precious babies ends with birth. Why, it’s almost like they have a fetus fetish – or are more interested in controlling women’s sexuality and reproduction than saving actual babies.

Many forced pregnancy fans limit their activities to electing anti-abortion politicians to office and shouting lies at pregnant people on clinic sidewalks. But others go much further. In this post, I have collected many links to show that there’s an awful lot of lone wolves out there. In fact, once we look at all those “isolated incidents,” once we peruse their very own rhetoric, and once we notice some patterns, it looks very much like an appreciable number of Americans, from proles to politicians, are inciting others to violence.

Some of them don’t even hide what they’re trying to do.

Take, for instance, the people behind the “Defensive Action Statement,” who are happy to put their names to a document supporting outright assassination. Twice. And the statement doesn’t leave them any room to wriggle out of their call for murder:


At least eleven people have now been murdered by anti-abortion terrorists. Before Robert Dear murdered three people and injured nearly a dozen others on Friday, the numbers were:

8 murdered clinic workers (since 1993).

17 attempted murders (since 1991)

6,800+ reported bombings, arsons, death threats, bioterrorism threats, and assaults.

188,000+ reported bomb threats, hate mail, harassing calls, and other forms of harassment and intimidation.

Numbers that large indicate we don’t have a lone wolf problem so much as we have a breeding ground that produces an awful lot of terrorists. And these are just the reported incidents, folks. Clinics deal with countless attempts to intimidate them into closing.

The repeated acts of terrorism great and small end up becoming so much background noise to those who work at reproductive health clinics.

How many terrorist acts does it take to recognize we have an enormous problem, and it’s not just a bunch of lone wolves we’re helpless to stop? How about a hundred?

How about a ninefold increase in violent acts and threats since Republicans started using those lying videos to attack Planned Parenthood?

And all of this is incited by a huge network of people proclaiming abortion is a holocaust, abortion doctors are murderers, and that life begins at conception. We have whole armies of people celebrating violence in the name of saving fetuses. When an attack happens, even legislators are quick to blame the victims. What did they think would happen? How can they possibly disavow any knowledge of these terrorists’ actions?

How much violence does it take before we stop describing these white male terrorists as “gentle loners,” and giving them sympathetic write-ups? (I mean, shit, even the dude being an abuser and rapist isn’t enough to get some media outlets to treat him like a thug.) How long will it take us to realize that there’s no such thing as a lone wolf?

Image is a demotivational-style poster showing seven men who murdered abortion clinic staff and bystanders. Caption says, Lone wolves: quite a large pack, isn't it?

You don’t have to imagine the courage it takes for clinic staff and volunteers to do their jobs after a terrorist attack on a sister clinic. You can read about it right here. These folks are fucking superheroes.

You can feel as sad as you want that abortion is a necessary component of women’s health care. What you can’t do is pretend that violence against reproductive health clinics has nothing to do with the hate campaigns against them. You can no longer pretend that you, “pro-life” crusader, have nothing to do with all those lone wolves who take your rhetoric to its logical conclusion, and go attack the people you’ve taught them to abhor.

Image is white lettering on a shaded pink background saying "I stand with Planned Parenthood."


3 thoughts on “An Army of “Lone Wolves”: The American Right’s War on Women’s Reproductive Rights

  1. 2

    In the middle ages, preachers, especially at Easter, would inform their congregations that the local Jews at that very moment had kidnapped Christians babies whose bodies they were draining of blood to make their Passover matzoh. They didn’t need to tell their flock what to do. What would anyone do if they thought that was true? This way, when whatever political authority existed in the area started looking into the following massacre, the preacher could deny having caused it.

    Does this remind anyone else of what Fiorina and O’Reilly have done? Those inhuman trans-gendered atheist secular humanist monsters are cutting up our babies and selling the parts! What is the natural consequence of making someone believe that?

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