COLUMBUS – Ohio’s attorney general joined his counterparts in 18 other states in sending a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging him to take swift action in response to recent attacks on pro-life organizations following the leak in of a Supreme Court draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
The draft opinion leaked in May indicated the court planned to overturn the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide and give states and local communities the ability to ban the procedure.
Since then, Dave Yost and the other attorneys general claim in their letter, “charities that support pregnant mothers in need have been firebombed and pro-life organizations have been attacked almost daily and terrorized.”
Although the attacks began last month, Yost says the FBI waited until last week to announce that it would investigate them.
The letter urges the Justice Department to pay particular attention to the pro-choice group called Jane’s Revenge, which the letters says has declared “open season” on anti-abortion organizations, “urging its members ‘to paint, to burn, to cut, [and] to jam’ centers and advocates.”
“In America, we solve our differences with debates and ballots, not with bricks and Molotov cocktails,” Yost said.
Jane’s Revenge has claimed responsibility for attacks in Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin, Yost said.
Among those states, only the attorney general in Texas signed the letter.
Along with Yost, the letter was signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.