Hours After Lie Filled Republican Hearing, Planned Parenthood Burned In Arson Attack

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:46 pm

screen cap from On Scene TV via LA Times

screen cap from On Scene TV via LA Times

Last night, following the Republican Party’s televised despicable false attacks on Planned Parenthood which included deceptively edited videos and false graphs, a Planned Parenthood in Thousand Oaks, California burned in what authorities have determined was an arson attack. This came just weeks after a vandalism attack om the same facility.

The Los Angeles Times reported, “Ventura County sheriff’s Capt. John Reilly said Thursday someone likely used a rock to shatter a window at the Planned Parenthood facility in the 1200 block of West Hillcrest Drive, then threw gasoline inside the office and ignited it.”

“You’re putting the community at risk when you’re doing something like this,” Tim Lohman, a detective with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, told the Los Angeles Times. “The reasons behind why the person did what they did, we don’t know. And that’s going to be part of the investigation and hopefully give us some foresight into why they targeted this specific location. Whether it’s the stuff that’s in the news recently, we don’t know.”

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Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-CA) issued a statement today saying she was “deeply troubled to learn that for the second time in two months, the Planned Parenthood clinic in Thousand Oaks has been the target of criminals and cowards who seek to intimidate healthcare workers and deny women their constitutionally-protected rights.”

She continued, “For over 100 years, Planned Parenthood has been a trusted provider of reproductive and preventative healthcare services for both women and men. These acts of vandalism and arson are just the latest examples of the extreme right’s attacks on women’s healthcare and cannot be tolerated. I will continue to work tirelessly to support and protect a woman’s right to choose, and I call on my colleagues in Congress, and leaders in our community, to denounce these deplorable actions.”

So this is what it’s come to — criminal acts endangering the community, all so Republicans can harm an institution that actually is the best way to reduce the abortion rate. Republicans are holding these national “hearings” on Planned Parenthood in order to feed the public false and inflammatory information so as to change their mind on the issue of choice.

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy admitted as much on CNN yesterday. While the motivation has not been determined yet, the idea that people would be so upset because they believe the outrageous lies Republicans are selling that they would commit crimes is not a stretch. See 2010, death panels, and the many crimes and threats against elected officials over healthcare reform.


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