In 2022, radical abortion group Jane’s Revenge targeted CompassCare Pregnancy Center in Buffalo, New York, as part of their post-Dobbs “Night of Rage.” Recently CompassCare succeeded in obtaining the surveillance footage of the firebombing – and has made it public for the world to see.
According to Rev. Jim Harden, CEO of CompassCare, the local police and FBI withheld CompassCare’s own surveillance footage and did not allow the group to view it, even after repeated requests. It took six months of litigation before CompassCare succeeded in compelling the unconditional release of the footage — nearly a year after the firebombing took place.
“The following surveillance video is what the FBI and local police do not want you to see,” said Rev. Harden, introducing the footage.
BREAKING: CompassCare Wins Lawsuit as Threats Increase.
This is what the FBI didn't want you to see… pic.twitter.com/nvu8Bte834— CompassCare (@compasscare) April 14, 2023
The surveillance footage depicts a hatchback sedan pulling up to the building. Two masked males get out of the car and open the trunk. One immediately pulls out a can of spray paint and runs toward the building, while the second male assembles several Molotov cocktails. After setting the incendiaries ablaze, the assailants break windows and throw them into the building. After the building becomes engulfed in flames, and only minutes after having arrived, the two arsonists speed away.
“This arson attack represents not a loose grassroots protest, but a highly organized and calculated international Antifa-style hit job using Molotov cocktails, growing into a blaze that would injure two firefighters,” Rev. Harden observed.
In the CompassCare attack, windows were shattered, an office was burned and heavily damaged, and the words “Jane was here” were spray-painted on the side of the building.
The attack on CompassCare was one of a wave of attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers that followed the leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, as documented by Live Action News. Despite this and additional threats and warnings from Jane’s Revenge – one of which preceded CompassCare’s attack – for months, the FBI offered no updates on the progress of investigations to bring perpetrators to justice, the overwhelming majority of whom today remain at large. When Attorney General Merrick Garland was finally questioned in Congress in February about the lack of progress, he appeared to blame the delay on the fact that these attacks take place “at night in the dark.”
“The Amherst police repeatedly declined multiple requests from me to view the video, deferring to the FBI. Since then, over 300 attacks on pro-life entities have occurred with zero convictions. Both federal House and Senate judiciary committees are investigating the DOJ and FBI’s refusal to thoroughly investigate and prosecute violent crimes against pro-life pregnancy centers like CompassCare,” Rev. Harden said.
To Rev. Harden, the attacks are part of a pattern designed to keep women from seeking help and to make abortion the inevitable option for women in crisis pregnancies.
“When a woman faces an unplanned pregnancy, she considers abortion because she feels trapped, like she has no choice, like she needs to have an abortion,” Rev. Harden said. “CompassCare and other pro-life pregnancy centers erase the need for abortion by providing women with ethical medical care and comprehensive community support for free. Pro-abortion Antifa want women to have no choice but abortion.”
The state of New York ratcheted up the pressure on pro-life groups in the wake of the attack, rather than getting to the bottom of the crime. The state launched what CompassCare called an “unjust investigation” into pro-life pregnancy centers with onerous demands levied on them, as Live Action News reported. In the meantime, the state of New York also allocated tens of millions of dollars to provide security for abortion facilities.
