CBS News, citing unidentified sources, reports that dynamite was used in both bombs which exploded at an Atlanta abortion clinic. The New York Times also reported that the bombers used ten to twenty sticks of dynamite in each attack. The dynamite used is rarely used by amateurs and requires a federal permit to carry across state lines. Investigators are currently trying to ascertain how the explosives were obtained.
The Atlanta Northside Family Planning Services clinic experienced severe damage after it was bombed on January 16, 1997. A second bomb exploded approximately an hour later in a nearby dumpster. There is some speculation that the first bomb was intended to level the building and the second one was intended to kill people who arrived on the scene after the first bombing.
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and Tipper Gore condemned recent acts of violence against abortion clinics at NARAL’s celebration of the January 22nd twenty-fourth anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Speaking just hours after an explosion near a Washington, DC Planned Parenthood clinic, Vice President Al Gore, Tipper Gore, and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed outrage at recent acts of domestic terrorism involving bombs at abortion clinics in Atlanta, Georgia; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Washington, D.C. The Gores and Rodham Clinton stood up for a woman’s right to choose and condemned violent acts performed to prevent threaten and intimidate women, preventing them from exercising their constitutional right to abortion.
