On June 14, pro-abortion terrorist group “Jane’s Revenge” claimed credit for numerous attacks on pro-life centers around the country, including the June 7 attack on Mountain Area Pregnancy Services (MAPS) in Asheville. The message was originally posted on Abolition Media, which supports left-wing revolutionary groups around the world, but a day later, Jane’s Revenge also posted the message to the group’s official website.
“You have seen us in Madison WI, Ft. Collins CO, Reisertown MA, Olympia WA, Des Moines IA, Lynwood WA, Washington DC, Ashville [SIC] NC, Buffalo NY, Hollywood FL, Vancouver WA, Frederick MA, Denton TX, Gresham OR, Eugene OR, Portland OR, among others, and we work in countless locations invisibly,” the group said in the message.
Jane’s Revenge said they are “not one group but many,” and sources familiar with the group say they are connected to Antifa and operate as a similarly loose confederation of like-minded cells. The name is a reference to a group called the Jane Collective that helped women get abortions in pre-Roe v. Wade Chicago.
Shortly after forming in response to the leaked Dobbs decision, the group claimed credit on May 8 for firebombing a Madison, Wisconsin, pro-life pregnancy center, posting their “First Communique” on their website. They also sent confirmation to journalist Robert Evans. The message, “If abortions aren’t safe, then neither are you,” was spraypainted on the clinic in the group’s signature cursive.
In the Asheville vandalism, it appeared the perpetrators forgot their cursive halfway through the message, switching to print. Jane’s Revenge’s latest “communique” possibly referenced this sloppy execution, ending their note with, “Stay safe, and practice your cursive.”
The First Communique gave pro-life pregnancy-support centers 30 days to shut down before the group would escalate past simple vandalism. They said the attack on the Wisconsin clinic was the only warning that would be given.
“Too long have we been attacked for asking for basic medical care. Too long have we been shot, bombed, and forced into childbirth without consent. This was only a warning. We demand the disbanding of all anti-choice establishments, fake clinics, and violent anti-choice groups within the next thirty days. This is not a mere ‘difference of opinion’ as some have framed it. We are literally fighting for our lives… As you continue to bomb clinics and assassinate doctors with impunity, so too shall we adopt increasingly extreme tactics to maintain freedom over our own bodies. We are forced to adopt the minimum military requirement for a political struggle.”
With that 30-day period over, the new message now suggests that the methods used to target pregnancy centers around the country was mild in comparison to other actions Jane’s Revenge is planning.
“Your thirty days expired yesterday,” Jane’s Revenge said in the June 14 message. “We offered an honourable way out. You could have walked away. Now the leash is off… We promised to take increasingly drastic measures against oppressive infrastructures. Rest assured that we will, and those measures may not come in the form of something so easily cleaned up as fire and graffiti… From here forward, any anti-choice group who closes their doors, and stops operating will no longer be a target. But until you do, it’s open season, and we know where your operations are. The infrastructure of the enslavers will not survive.”
Carolina Journal interviewed Kristi Brown, director of the vandalized clinic in Asheville, on June 16, and she said they were very aware of the message from Jane’s Revenge.
“We are working with multiple authorities right now, not just APD [Asheville Police Department], and nobody has told us it is not authentic,” Brown said.
Brown said the message has made them reassess how they need to protect themselves over the next couple weeks as the Dobbs decision looms. They are now taking extra precautions with their financial and even physical security.
“This is like all-out war,” Brown said. “I’m spending my morning today calling my bank, working with my IT guy, shoring up everything.”
While the clinic received a lot of support from the community in the days after the attack, they’ve also been harassed by left-wing activists online — some who support the attack and others who believe that the clinic attacked itself as a fundraising effort.
“That is grounded on absolutely nothing but nonsense,” Brown said of the accusations. “I’m like, do you really think I’d take all that time and do all that damage for the heck of it? Have you thought through what you’re saying? We’ve tried to either hide or delete a lot of the negative comments. Comments like, ‘Well I wish the destruction had been worse.’ There are a lot of people who don’t like what we do… They’re happy if we’re damaged.”
In addition to the threats of escalating violence from the 30-days expiring, Jane’s Revenge has also been spreading the word about a nationwide “Night of Rage” starting at 8 p.m. on whatever date the Dobbs decision is announced.
“Consider this your call to action,” Jane’s Revenge said on their website. “On the night the final ruling is issued — a specific date we cannot yet predict, but we know is arriving imminently — we are asking for courageous hearts to come out after dark. Whoever you are and wherever you are, we are asking for you to do what you can to make your anger known.”
The group signed off by saying, “To those who work to oppress us: If abortion isn’t safe, you aren’t either. We are everywhere.”
Brown was also aware of this call to violence on the night Dobbs is decided, saying, “We’re making no plans to shut down at this moment; we are making plans for adding security for when the decision comes out. We know we could be a target again.”
In an earlier interview with Carolina Journal after the clinic was attacked, Brown said, “I have spoken with pregnancy-center directors across the U.S. in the past 24 hours, and every center is on pins and needles. We’re all just trying to be smart and band together and be a united front in this cause, but we’re not going to be intimidated by evil like this. We’re going to continue to provide services that are so needed.”
Brown also said they “had been informed” that the FACE Act — a federal law used to prosecute those interfering with access to reproductive clinics — would apply to whoever is arrested for the attacks. While the law was introduced by Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy in 1993 to protect clinics providing abortions, she said pregnancy-support clinics fall within the definitions as well.
Carolina Journal reached out to the Asheville Police Department by phone and email seeking an update on the investigation but has not received a response by time of publication.
Brown has also recently appeared on Laura Ingram’s show on FOX News to discuss the vandalism.