At 7:45 a.m. on January 22, the twenty-fourth anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, a device exploded one block from a Planned Parenthood clinic in Washington, D.C., one mile from the White House. Just days after two bombs exploded near a clinic in Atlanta, Georgia and another bomb exploded in a Tulsa, Oklahoma clinic, police say a man carrying the device was walking toward the clinic and fled in the direction of the Mayflower Hotel after the device exploded. The man has said he found the device in a lamp post. The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) planned to hold a luncheon in honor of the anniversary with Vice President Al Gore, Tipper Gore and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in attendance later that afternoon in the Mayflower Hotel.
Abortion rights activists have been on alert and defending clinics all weekend in anticipation of increased abortion clinic violence surrounding the Roe v. Wade anniversary. Anti-abortion activists planned to march down Constitution Avenue in the afternoon of the 22nd in conjunction with the “March for Life.”
