Littleton police are still investigating vandalism that targeted the town’s pro-life pregnancy center. Months after the incident no arrests have been made.
Left-wing violence directed at pro-life pregnancy resource centers like Littleton’s Pathways Pregnancy Care Center has surged over the past year. The Catholic News Agency has tracked more than 100 incidents of what it calls “pro-abortion vandalism” since the leak of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs in May 2022. Two of the pro-life facilities were firebombed.
For months, Republicans and pro-life groups have complained that the Biden Department of Justice had not prosecuted a single case. In January, the DOJ brought charges against two reputed members of the extremist pro-abortion group Jane’s Revenge for a string of attacks on pregnancy centers.
Littleton Police Chief Paul Smith said his department is not deterred, despite the case remaining unsolved. He said investigators can be patient waiting for the right opportunity to bring charges.
“Sometimes it may take six months, it may take eight months for something to break,” Smith said.
Police do have information on a potential suspect in the vandalism, but so far they do not have enough evidence to bring a charge. Smith said there is no indication at this time the June vandalism in Littleton is connected to the Jane’s Revenge movement.
“We have no information it is anything beyond local,” Smith said.
The volunteers at the Littleton center found graffiti on the side of the building that stated, “Fund Abortion, Abort God.” Pathways is an avowed Christian ministry devoted to helping pregnant women. The organization rents its space from the Elevate Church.
Smith has raised the possibility that the case could become a civil rights case depending on what evidence is eventually uncovered.
Pathways offers free ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, parenting classes, and baby supplies as well as help getting social assistance.
U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster has made her opposition to crisis pregnancy centers clear. After the attack on Pathways, she joined a legislative effort led by Massachusetts progressive U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren attempting to criminalize the work done by those organizations.
Caleb Hunter Freestone and Amber Marie Smith-Stewart were indicted on Jan. 18 for their alleged attacks on Christian pregnancy resource centers in Florida, according to court records. The indictments against the pair state they worked with other unnamed conspirators to attack the centers that offer women alternatives to abortion and threaten the people who work there.
Jane’s Revenge attacks typically feature graffiti with the slogan, “If abortions aren’t safe, then neither are you.”
According to a report compiled by the civil rights group the Catholic League, Jane’s Revenge is behind dozens of attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers. The attacks include numerous firebombings of the centers.
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said the government’s hesitation to investigate and prosecute Jane’s Revenge has resulted in the continuing violence. He accuses the government of failing to protect pro-life centers through inaction. The recent arrests and indictment of Freestone and Smith-Stewart do not change the government’s lackluster response to what he calls domestic terrorism.
“With the exception of the recent indictment by a federal grand jury of two persons charged with attacks on crisis pregnancy centers, little has been done to prosecute those guilty of such crimes,” Donohue said. “Indeed, the relaxed response to attacks on those in the pro-life community who have been victimized stands in stark contrast to the aggressive pursuit of the few instances of alleged violations of the law by pro-life Americans.”
