The conservative battle against a woman’s right to choose took a deadly turn on Friday, as right-wing domestic terrorists set a Planned Parenthood clinic in Pullman Washington on fire. There were no injuries, but the clinic was heavily damaged. The FBI and ATF are investigating the incident but have no information to offer at the moment.
The arson is the latest escalation of the conservative culture wars against progress and tolerance. Seeing that they lost the battle for gay marriage, the far-right have targeted abortion rights instead. The heavily edited and misleading videos that were illegally shot by an anti-abortion group has become a talking point in the Republican Party’s brutal primary fight and has inflamed the more gullible members of American society, resulting in protests across the country. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened.
“This is an appalling act of violence towards Planned Parenthood, but unfortunately a predictable ripple effect from the false and incendiary attacks that fuel violence from extremists” said Karl Eastlund, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho. Make no mistake. They may not fly black flags, but attacks like this are no different than those carried out by the Islamic State (ISIL/Daesh). Religious fundamentalism has no place in a modern, civilized, multi-ethnic and multi-gendered society. The political wing of conservative America seems intent on tearing our nation apart, sowing seeds of division at every level, denying rights to everyone who isn’t a white Christian male. Our differences and diversity is what made our nation great, and it is what will keep us great. This kind of petulant barbarism must not be allowed to succeed.