President Clinton, in a statement issued after an abortion clinic was bombed twice on January 16th, said, “The double bombing at a women’s health clinic in Atlanta this morning was a vile and malevolent crime. Make no mistake: anyone who brings violence against a woman trying to exercise her constitutional rights is committing an act of terror. It is always wrong. And it should be punished severely.” Demanding that abortion violence be categorized as “domestic terrorism,” Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, commented, “We were horrified and outraged by news of this tragedy, but hardly surprised, since our press conference was called to bring attention to the persistent violence being targeted at abortion clinics nationwide.”
The abortion clinic in Atlanta was bombed twice on January 16th; one blast going off at 9:30 in the morning and the other less than an hour later. The first bomb did not injure anyone, but did destroy the abortion clinic, which was on the ground floor of a in a high rise office complex. The second bomb injured officials and people who had gathered to investigate the first bombing. Ironically, at the same time the bomb went off in Atlanta, women’s rights and abortion rights activists were holding a press conference in Washington D.C. to warn Americans that clinic violence is not a thing of the past. Though clinic violence has been decreasing, a 1996 Clinic Violence Survey conducted by the Feminist Majority Foundation indicates that one-third of clinics still experience severe abortion-related violence
