The Escalation of Violence Since Dobbs
As we approach the one year anniversary of the fall of Roe, the Endora team is also preparing to monitor anti-abortion extremists Operation Save America’s National Conference in Atlanta this July. The last time we encountered them this past February in South Carolina was a notable escalation in violence toward clinic workers, and we don’t see that stopping any time soon.
On Thursday, February 23, 2023, a group of volunteer clinic escorts from several states joined the Greenville Clinic Defenders in front of the Greenville Women’s Center to help them manage the significant increase in protesters due to Operation Save America’s Leadership Event being in town. Members of Endora and the National Abortion Federation were also on site to assist with security concerns and document the activity.
Around 9 am, escorts were at the top of a steep hill, along the fence that surrounds GWC’s property, on the public easement side of the fence. Local protesters have regularly set up a 15’ ladder in this area to yell over the fence at patients as they enter the clinic from the private parking lot. On this day, the larger group of escorts had made it to the top of the hill before protesters arrived, and set up some of their supplies at either end of the path that leads to the top of the hill.
As the Operation Save America crew arrived, Gabe Olivier first decided to push through a group of escorts at the top of the path entrance closest to the clinic driveway, shoving and putting his hands on two escorts, pushing them into thorny bushes.
Shortly after that, some members of the group (Gabe Olivier, Zach Hebb, and a minor) decided to climb the hill, with their ladder, from the center of the hill, where it is steepest, and attempt to set up the ladder where several escorts were already standing. When the escorts refused to move, they proceeded to force their way through, opening the ladder on top of them, using their elbows to shove and hit them in the neck. Several more escorts stood by along the fence to record and distract them, while they continued assaulting the escorts that refused to move. The group then switched tactics to try pulling the ladder on to the escorts.
After about 20 minutes of this, Jason Storms, Timothy Bachleitner, Lucas Childress, Sean Brinza, and several of their children climbed the hill to “help” his team push their way through the group to set up the ladder, pushing escorts into the bushes, and crushing them against the fence, with enough force that they wound up breaking their own ladder. At one point you can see the entire weight of the ladder resting on one escort’s back, and the fence bowing from people being pushed into it.
At this point, the four of the children of members of OSA came up the hill with a second, smaller ladder, and proceeded to do the exact same thing, to the same group of escorts. They tell one escort, “move or you are going to be a flat pancake,” and she refuses. They then proceed to crush her and two other escorts against the fence with the ladder until they extract themselves. Finally, one of the adults stepped in to call them off and take the ladder away. As they are carrying away the ladder, one escort was nearly pushed down the hill by one of the youths
In total, the two altercations lasted about forty minutes. One escort was treated for a sprained wrist after being grabbed by Storms. Another was cut up on their shoulders from the ladders, and on the legs by barbed wire that was on the ground and required a tetanus shot. Everybody involved had significant bruising. Law enforcement was made aware of the situation, but no action was taken.
Later that weekend, several of the OSA members involved in the ladder altercation approached escorts at the rally in Columbia, SC, to “joke” about the fight. Even the children felt emboldened to gloat to the women they had assaulted earlier in the week.
Most of the people involved on both sides of this altercation had interacted before, both at Greenville, and in different cities. This was a significant escalation from previous encounters, and the first time that a group of OSA members have gotten physically violent with a group of clinic escorts. This is especially alarming when you consider that many of the same OSA members met a month and a half later at a “Manhood Restored Bootcamp” where they were training their children in hand-to-hand combat.
Abortion advocates are used to the dehumanizing language from anti-abortion protesters, calling us demons and witches to make us less than human in the eyes of their parishioners. Over the last several years, we have watched as their rhetoric has gotten increasingly more war-focused. Suddenly a handful of them were at the Capitol on January 6 screaming things like, “Revolution 2.0!” Then they started training in hand-to-hand combat, and that moved on to weapons training. Next thing you know, they’ve started partnering with weapons manufacturers, and including clips of them clearing a room with a rifle in their promotional videos.
All of this prepping could have been written off as cosplay until this point. In February, members of OSA crossed a line and showed they have no hesitation to hurt people in front of a clinic, no matter how many people are watching. Not to defend themselves, but so that they could set up a ladder to yell at people trying to go to the doctor. What is worse is that they also learned that they could hurt people without consequences. I do not see this progression stopping any time soon without serious intervention. People who train for battle want to put their skills to use, and why wouldn’t they continue like this if there are no repercussions for their actions?