Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) asked Christopher Wray, President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, whether or not he would prosecute attacks on abortion clinics. The fact Blumenthal asked this suggested that the senator honestly thought there was a chance Wray would refuse to prosecute such cases.
“Between 1977 and 2015, there have been hundreds of crimes committed against reproductive health care facilities, clinics, and other offices, abortion providers, reproductive health care, senators, including 11 murders, 26 attempted murders, 42 bombings, 185 arsons and so forth,” Blumenthal noted.
“In 1998, Attorney General Janet Reno created the national task force on violence against reproductive health providers to coordinate investigation and prosecution of such incidents,” the senator continued. “As FBI director, I hope you will continue to support the FBI’s participation in that effort.”
Wray responded that he would. “Senator, I gather there is a specific statute that is in place that the FBI has investigative jurisdiction to enforce,” he said. “We would zealously investigate all criminal violations including the ones under the statute.”
This may seem like a small throw-away question, but the suggestion that even an outspokenly pro-life FBI director would refuse to prosecute violence against abortion clinics is insulting.
President Trump has taken stands for limiting abortion, but never has he or his administration suggested that violence against abortion clinics is anything less than criminal. Trump’s choice for FBI director — a man who served as assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division under President George W. Bush — would certainly not bend the law in such a way.
The Democratic Party has increasingly rejected any position less than full support for abortion. Pro-abortion activists have dressed as handmaids from Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale in order to protest pro-life legislation, sending a message that any laws restriction abortion are misogynistic.
Perhaps Blumenthal has been watching too much of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
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