The medical office of a Tacoma, Washington abortion provider was bombed on Monday, June 11. Three clinic staff members were inside the building at the time and escaped injury; provider Dr. Doug Attig was in the parking lot during the noontime explosion and was also uninjured. After the blast, at least fifty people were evacuated from the office building housing Dr. Attig’s Westgate Family Medicine facility. A wall of the facility was destroyed and debris fell from the building’s overhang.
As Tacoma’s only private physician who openly performs abortions, Dr. Attig has experienced threats and harassment for twenty years; anti-abortion extremists have followed him and videotaped him at his home. Attig was a party in a Washington lawsuit arguing for safe access to abortion clinics and was subjected to increased protests.
This geographic region has experienced considerable abortion related violence and is known to foster anti-abortion extremists groups and anti-government militia adherents. No one has claimed responsibility for the June 11 bombing and local and federal investigators presently have no suspects.
Need more information about the latest trends in anti-abortion clinic violence?
Read FMF’s Anti-Abortion Violence Watch report.
