WASHINGTON – Suspected assassin Vance Boelter listed names of abortion providers and activists in a series of notebooks found at his home and threats to doctors and clinics are on the upswing, but Republicans in Congress are trying to repeal the only federal law designed to protect abortion providers from violence.
On Jan. 21, the first full day of President Donald Trump’s new term, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, introduced a repeal of the FACE Act, a federal law approved by Congress more than 30 years ago with strong bipartisan support after a Florida OB-GYN was fatally shot by an anti-abortion extremist.
Roy’s effort is supported by many fellow hard-right Freedom Caucus members, but Rep. Pete Stauber, R-8th District, is also an original co-sponsor of the legislation.
And Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has introduced a similar FACE Act repeal in the U.S. Senate. Lee says legal scholars have long questioned the constitutionality of the FACE Act and that the Biden administration used it as a “tool to harass and prosecute pro-life activists.”
Neither Roy’s nor Lee’s offices responded to requests for comments.
On Wednesday Lee deleted posts on his personal X account about the fatal attack on former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and the wounding of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife.
In one post, Lee said the assassination of Hortman “is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way,” and another that featured a photo of Boelter was captioned “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” apparently in reference to Gov. Tim Walz.
The posts were deleted after Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., confronted Lee about them. On Tuesday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., also said she spoke with Lee.
Smith, a former Planned Parenthood official, said the FACE Act has acted as a deterrent to those who would do harm to doctors and clinics that provide abortions.
The FACE Act allows the Justice Department to pursue both criminal and civil actions against violators. The law makes it a federal crime to use violence, threats, or physical obstruction to prevent someone from accessing or providing abortion services.
Penalties for violations of the act include fines and imprisonment.
“I worked at Planned Parenthood, I know all too well that receiving credible death threats is a fact of life for people who work in reproductive health care,” Smith said in a text. “I knew physicians who regularly traveled around wearing bulletproof vests, and I know people who had to fortify their homes against attacks. It’s a reality that’s been around for a long time.”
Smith also said “it’s unspeakable to me that these leaders whose job is to kind of bring us together and stand up for people would use this moment to just kind of fuel the fear and the hatred that is causing this political violence.”
Related: What a new abortion law says about changing DFL politics in Minnesota
The National Abortion Federation, which tracks violence against abortion providers, claims that since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade three years ago, attacks against doctors and clinics have skyrocketed.
However, Trump has pardoned 23 individuals prosecuted under the act.
‘Actively fearful’
According to the federal complaint against Boelter, law enforcement recovered notebooks that contained the names of 45 Minnesota officials, “mostly or all Democrats,” as well as the names of abortion clinics and providers and abortion rights activists, in the Minneapolis home the suspect lived in part of the time.
Police have not revealed what the alleged killer’s motive might have been, but there’s bipartisan agreement in Minnesota that Boelter’s actions were politically motivated.
When Boelter conducted missionary work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo some years ago, he said American churches had “gone soft” on the issue of abortion.
Related: What we know about Vance Boelter so far
In any case, the suspect’s listing of abortion providers and well-known activists has put a chill in Minnesota’s abortion-rights community.
A Minnesota media site has published a partially redacted list of Boelter’s “hit list” that was provided to law enforcement. That has concerned Smith.
“I talked to one of my … longtime friends who’s been a leader in the reproductive rights movement for decades, who is actively fearful for her personal safety because her name was on the list, and she’s lived through this her entire working career,” Smith said.
Boelter, captured after a massive manhunt near his home in Green Isle Sunday evening, is in federal custody, charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder and other federal crimes. His preliminary hearing is scheduled on June 27.
“Vance Luther Boelter went on a violent rampage against our elected officials,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson for the District of Minnesota in a statement. “These were targeted political assassinations the likes of which have never been seen in Minnesota. It was an attack on our state and on our democracy. We will not rest until he is brought to justice.”
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