The last standing abortion clinic in Mississippi was vandalized over the weekend, when a lone assailant attempted to destroy the center's security cameras and power lines in the middle of the night Sunday. Staffers at the Jackson Women's Health Organization, also known as "the Pink House," arrived at the center on Monday morning to discover alarms sounding off over the mess, as well as video footage revealing a single man in a hoodie attacking one camera after the other with a blunt object.
The clinic, which has narrowly escaped closure more than once over the past several years, posted a message about the attack on its website, indicating that the vandalism might have been the work of anti-choice activists:
Coincidentally, we are currently enduring an extended period of targeted protest by the California based group Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust [sic]. Operation Save America has also come to Mississippi to harass our staff and our patients. Unfortunately by now we are all “used” to the yelling and shaming these groups frequently bring with them. And even though we are now stripped of part of what makes us feel secure, we will find ways to adapt. Maybe it will be adding barbed wire to the roof……slowly morphing into a fortress, both intimidating yet reassuring. Of course the goal of the anti-abortion terrorists is to transform a legal, safe, and common medical procedure into a fearful, and traumatic experience for everyone involved.
Last summer, the Pink House was allowed to remain open after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals -- with help from a Reagan appointee, ironically -- struck down a Mississippi admitting privileges law that would have forced the clinic to shut down.
Watch more coverage of the attack from Rachel Maddow:
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