By Ryan Fatica
Miami, FL – On May 8, 2022, as the world waited anxiously for the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade to drop, anonymous vandals smashed in the window of the Wisconsin Family Action building in Madison, Wisconsin and set the building ablaze. On the wall of the building, they scrawled the message, “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either.”
“This was only a warning,” wrote the attackers in an anonymous communique sent to journalist Robert Evans. “We demand the disbanding of all anti-choice establishments, fake clinics, and violent anti-choice groups within the next thirty days.”
The arson and communique sent shock waves through the country and inspired a coast-to-coast campaign of more than 20 acts of sabotage and vandalism on the infrastructure of the anti-abortion movement — mostly against so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) and churches involved in anti-abortion activism.
More than nine months later, the federal government has announced the first prosecutions of Jane’s Revenge vandals. But the two indicted on federal charges aren’t accused of burning down any buildings, or even smashing any windows.
They’re accused of graffiti.
Caleb Freestone and Amber Smith-Stewart, two community organizers in Florida, have been charged with one count each of Conspiracy Against Rights and two counts each of Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, a law designed to prevent the blockading of abortion clinic entrances and the intimidation of those seeking abortions.
The indictment alleges that on May 28, June 26, and July 3, 2022 the pair spray painted slogans on the outside of three anti-choice centers reading, “If abortions aren’t safe niether are you” [sic], “Your time is up!! We’re coming for U” and “We are everywhere.”
Leave a Reply