There is no epidemic of violence against abortion providers in the U.S. in the 21st Century according to statistics compiled by the pro-choice National Abortion Federation and liberal-dominated Wikipedia.
Vox compiled an interactive chart based on the NAF statistics that shows the paucity of violence against abortion providers and clinics since 2000. The Vox chart covering 1997-2012 shows that the years 2006, 2008 and 2010 had no “Bombing; Murder; Shooting, Stabbing or Acid Attack; or Arson.”
The murderous attack by a lone gunman on the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado on November 27 stands out as a rarity in this era. The last murder of an abortion provider was in 2009 when George Tiller was assassinated. Before that 1998 was the last year for murders/attempted murders against abortion providers. NAF reports a total of eight murders in attacks on abortion providers and clinics since record keeping of attacks started in 1977. Three people were reported killed in Friday’s attack bringing the total murdered in the thirty-eight years since 1977 to eleven.
Since the end of the 1990s when there was a sustained, deadly violent war on abortion providers and clinics, attacks have fallen to a handful per year, with several years seeing no attacks at all.
From 2000 through October 2015 there was one murder in 2009 and one attempted murder in 2000.
There was one reported kidnapping, in 2006, since 2000.
From 2000 through 2015 there were two reported bombings, one in 2001 and one in 2011.
Arsons have tailed off in frequency from the early 2000s when there was an average of two per year from 2000 though 2005. Since 2006 there has been an average of one per year through 2015 with five of those years having no arsons at all.
Since 2000 there has been a total of twenty-two attempted bombings/arsons through 2015–an average of less than two per year. In fact the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 saw no bomb/arson attempts.
The pro-life movement actively discourages violence against abortion providers and clinic. The proof of that is to be found in the past decade-and-a-half.
However there have been four reported attacks since the recent exposé on Planned Parenthood allegedly trafficking in aborted baby body parts: Two arson attacks, a hatchet vandalism attack and Friday’s deadly attack that killed three and wounded nine. The clinic subjected to the hatchet vandalism had previously operated for eighteen years ‘without incident’.
