The Washington Attorney General’s office recently launched a “reproductive rights complaint form” on its state website that appears to target pro-lifers. The form allows anyone to file a complaint if they say they were unable to receive an abortion or experienced “harassment” at an abortion facility or pregnancy resource center.
According to KXLY, the AG’s office will use the information collected in the form to work with law enforcement to potentially open up an investigation against people named in any complaints.
The form includes a number of suggested items that serve as a basis for a complaint, including:
- being denied an abortion
- experiencing harassment at an abortion facility
- experiencing deception, harassment, or misconduct at a crisis pregnancy center
- denial of insurance coverage for abortion
- pharmacy refusal to fill a prescription for birth control, emergency contraception, or abortion pills
“We wanted to make sure people understood what their rights were,” said Kristin Beneski, Washington’s First Assistant Attorney General. “Certainly our office is working to understand situations in which people’s rights may be being violated, and if that’s ever the case our intent would be to take actions within our power to protect those rights.”
Planned Parenthood praised the complaint form, and a spokesman said that the abortion business intends to use the form to limit pro-life activity outside its abortion facilities.
“Protests have doubled, and so we’re seeing more protests. It does impact staff, it does impact patients,” Paul Dillon with Planned Parenthood in Spokane said. “We’ve already had some noisy protests this morning with protesters yelling at staff and patients, and we had patients voice concern.”
While it appears that the complaint form may be used to target pro-life activity, the FBI has confirmed that 70% of abortion-related threats and violence — since the draft of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked in May — have been committed against pro-lifers, not abortion businesses.
Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security Committee in November, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “Now, we have quite a number of investigations — as we speak — into attacks or threats against pregnancy resource centers, faith-based organizations, and other pro-life organizations. And you might be interested to know that since the Dobbs act decision, probably in the neighborhood of 70% of our abortion-related violence cases or threats cases are cases of violence or threats against […] pro-life organizations.”
