2018 saw a series of arrests in New Mexico when a hand-written document called “Phases of a Terrorist Attack,” was seized from a remote New Mexico desert compound where authorities found 11 children living in wretched conditions, and later a dead 3-year-old boy.

The Republican headquarters in Albuquerque was bombed in an act of domestic terrorism more recently. 

2018 saw a series of arrests in New Mexico when a hand-written document called “Phases of a Terrorist Attack,” was seized from a remote New Mexico desert compound where authorities found 11 children living in wretched conditions, and later a dead 3-year-old boy. The Republican headquarters in Albuquerque was bombed in an act of domestic terrorism more recently. 

This weekend a car explosion near a fertility clinic, deemed an act of terrorism by the FBI, occurred in the wealthy enclave od Palm Springs, California, resulting in one death and multiple injuries. The blast happened near the American Reproductive Centers (ARC) parking lot and caused minor damage to a nearby LGBTQ Community Center. The FBI is investigating the incident as an act of terrorism, with the Joint Terrorism Task Force assisting. The fertility clinic itself, including its lab housing reproductive materials, was not damaged, and the clinic stated it would be fully operational on Monday morning.

Fertility clinics like the one targeted Saturday in a suspected car bomb explosion in Palm Springs, Calif. have faced an escalation od threats from groups that oppose in vitro fertilization (IVF), a former member of the CIA and FBI told NewMexicoConservativeNews.com during a background briefing. Violence has typically occurred at abortion clinics, not as muxh at fertility clinics like American Reproductive Centers, the provider that was damaged in Saturday’s explosion, but threats overall around reproductive care are on the rise nationwide. 

The National Abortion Federation reported an increase in violence against abortion providers in 2022. Statistics showed more “major incidents” like arsons, burglaries, death threats, and “invasions of clinics” over the previous year, the report stated.

After that year’s U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, clinics in several southern and Midwest states closed to comport with anti-abortion laws, changing the way the organization gathers and compares statistics.

The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision allowing abortion clinics sparked decades of violence.

From 1977 to 2022, the group noted, anti-abortion extremists carried out “11 murders, 42 bombings, 200 arsons, 531 assaults” and a host of other crimes against providers and supporters of reproductive health services. Some extremist organizations conflate the mission of IVF Clinics and Abortion Clinics thus leading to increased threats.

Additionally, the group has helped give advice to providers of gender-affirming care as well who have been targeted with similar types of harassment in recent years, including doxxing the posting of people’s home addresses or other personal information and protests of specific doctors or clinics

The FBI’s Evidence Response Team is processing evidence and will be on site for a significant amount of time, with bomb technicians working on the post-blast scene as well to determine the origins of the blast

Dr. Maher Abdallah, who runs the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic where the explosion occurred, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that all of his staff were safe and accounted for.

The explosion damaged the practice’s office space, where it conducts consultations with patients, but left the IVF lab and all of the stored embryos there unharmed.

Pam Bondi, the U.S. attorney general, tweeted: “I have been briefed on the explosion at a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California that took place today. Federal agents are on the ground now responding alongside local law enforcement.

“We are working to learn more, but let me be clear: the Trump administration understands that women and mothers are the heartbeat of America. Violence against a fertility clinic is unforgivable.”