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[UPDATE] Hridindu Roychowdhury was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for using Molotov cocktails to firebomb the offices of the pro-life group Wisconsin Family Action.
Roychowdhury pled guilty to charges of arson on December 1, 2023. This came after he was arrested while attempting to flee the country on a one-way flight from Boston Logan International Airport to Guatemala.
In March 2023, law enforcement identified Roychowdhury as a suspect after he was connected with a vandalism attack on the state capitol; the graffiti there matched that of the graffiti on Wisconsin Family Action’s building, on which he spraypainted, “if abortions aren’t safe neither are you.” Law enforcement was then able to secure Roychowdhury’s DNA after watching him throw away a partially eaten burrito in a public trash can and matching it to the DNA found at Wisconsin Family Action.
According to a Twitter post by Antifa Watch, Roychowdhury appears to admit to being an “anarchist” in archived Twitter posts, making such comments as, “I hope to see 10,000 hanging pigs” and “I hope to see this country burn.” In other posts, he is seen communicating with Richard Tyler Hunsinger, an Antifa member who pled guilty last year to breaking windows with a hammer and throwing a Molotov cocktail, fireworks, and modified nail bombs into an occupied Department of Homeland Security building in Atlanta in 2020
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Timothy M. O’Shea called Roychowdhury’s actions “domestic terrorism,” describing it as “cowardly and profoundly undemocratic. It is not speech; it is not an exchange of ideas; instead, it is an attempt to harm or frighten one’s fellow citizens, thus driving Americans apart and weakening the fabric of our democratic society.”
During sentencing, U.S. District Judge William Conley said that the defendant “engaged in a deliberate act of terrorism toward a group advocating a different view.” He added that Roychowdhury possessed a “deep hate and anger that in his mind justified firebombing a building.”
The judge also noted that Roychowdhury appeared to have no remorse, having been unwilling to apologize for causing fear and trauma among the employees of Wisconsin Family Action through his attack and threats.
Despite this, Roychowdhury was given just 7.5 years in federal prison though he could have been sentenced to as long as 20 years.
CompassCare, a network of pro-life clinics which also had one of its buildings firebombed in June 2022, said that the sentence is too light, especially considering the DOJ’s harsh treatment of pro-life protestors who have received harsher sentences for peaceful protesting.
[T]he sentence ignores conspiracy and domestic terrorism, giving [him a] lighter sentence for a lighter charge,” the organization stated.
Its CEO, Rev. Jim Harden, argued,
“The dearth of arrests and investigations of violent pro-abortion terror compared to the crushing DOJ/FBI persecution of peaceful pro-lifers during the exact same time-frame, is difficult to interpret as anything other than the politicization of federal law enforcement and a conspiracy to deprive pro-life Christians of their right to express the truth that all people, born and preborn, are made in the image of God, deserving of equal protection under the law.”
The DOJ prosecuted six pro-life activists who protested at a Tennessee abortion facility and was able to secure convictions that could result in 11 years in prison and fines of $250,000. All six were not only charged with violating of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act but also with the much more serious crime of conspiracy.
Last fall, the DOJ prosecuted numerous other pro-lifers for a sit-in protest at the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, D.C. At least five of them were also convicted of FACE Act and conspiracy charges that carry sentences of up to 11 years in prison and the same fines.
{Published June 7, 2022} A pregnancy center in Buffalo, New York, was firebombed on Tuesday morning by a pro-abortion terrorist group, the third one since the unprecedented leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which showed that the Court is likely to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In recent weeks, dozens of churches and pro-life pregnancy centers have been targeted by pro-abortion activists. The bombing of CompassCare left windows smashed and the interior of the building burned. On the side of the building the words, “Jane was here,” were painted, referencing the terrorist group Jane’s Revenge, which has taken responsibility for other attacks since the leak.
Last month Jane’s Revenge took credit for the firebombing of Wisconsin Family Action, a pro-life pregnancy center in Madison. The group threw Molotov cocktails in the building and spray painted this warning on the side of the building: “if abortions aren’t safe, then you aren’t either.”
Robert Evans, an investigative reporter for Bellingcat’s, a collective of researchers and open-source journalists in the Netherlands, put up a Twitter thread showing the statement he received from Jane’s Revenge after the Wisconsin bombing. In it, the group claims that a war has been waged on them.
The statement reads:
“This is only a warning. We demand the disbanding of all anti-choice establishments, fake clinics, and violent anti-choice groups in the next thirty days. This is not a mere ‘difference of opinion’ as some have framed it. We are literally fighting for our lives. We will not sit still while we are killed and forced into servitude.”
The group, which refers to crisis pregnancy centers as “fake clinics,” added, “We have run thin on patience and mercy for those who seek to strip us of what little autonomy we have left.”
The statement goes on to say that the infrastructure of the “enslavers” will not survive and the group will adopt military strategies. “We are not one group, but many. We are in your city. We are in every city. Your repression only strengthens our accomplice-ship and resolve,” the statement ends.
Jane’s Revenge is also believed to have been responsible for the firebombing of the Oregon Right to Life headquarters building in Keizer, Oregon, and the group is also suspected in the recent vandalizing of other pregnancy centers, as well as churches.
After the Buffalo attack, CompassCare CEO Jim Harden responded by saying,
“This is the pro-abortion ‘Kristallnacht.’ Because of this act of violence, the needs of women facing unplanned pregnancy will go unmet and babies will die. I wonder if Gov. [Kathy] Hochul will veto the Pregnancy Center Investigation Bill? I wonder if Attorney General Letitia James will investigate these cowardly criminals? CompassCare will rebuild because women deserve better. CompassCare will not stop serving because pre-born boys and girls deserve protection.”
Attacks have become prevalent and the Department of Homeland Security has warned of increasing threats. “The volume of violent threats targeting Supreme Court Justices, members of Congress, other public officials, clergy, healthcare officials and providers, and others associated with the abortion debate are likely to persist and may increase leading up to and following the issuing of the Court’s official ruling,” the agency said.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas stated that the Court won’t be intimidated. Speaking at the 11th Circuit Judicial Conference, Thomas said, “We are becoming addicted to wanting particular outcomes, not living with the outcomes we don’t like,” adding, “We can’t be an institution that can be bullied into giving you just the outcomes you want. The events from earlier this week are a symptom of that.”
The Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling on the Dobbs case by the end of June.
These violent actions are the result of nearly 50 years of indoctrination in the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision that has led Americans to believe that abortion is necessary healthcare and that any restriction of the practice is tantamount to enslaving women. The fact is, Roe was wrongly decided (even pro-choice icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg thought so), and if it is overturned individual states will again have the ability to decide for themselves. Pro-abortion radicals don’t want that. They want to force the country to affirm their “inalienable right” to murder a child at any point in pregnancy. It is time those in power strongly denounce this type of violent activity and put a stop to it.
These abortion advocates claim to care about women, yet they are destroying organizations that actually help women rather than just perform abortions. Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
Christians must understand that we live in a world that is enslaved, not to any medical or political misogyny but to sin. The world will see issues differently than the Church and will respond in anger and violence. Christians must always act in love and wisdom, never returning evil for evil, but showing compassion. Christians should do as 1 Peter 3:16 says, “and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.”
Christians have been praying for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade since 1973 and it appears that God has finally answered those prayers. But the pro-abortion movement will not accept this decision easily, as we are already seeing. Pro-lifers must steel themselves for the fight ahead and be prepared to respond always as Christ would have us respond — with strength of character and resolve but also with love and compassion.
We must be ready to share the Gospel with a lost generation whenever the need arises, and we must pray without ceasing. Pray for the safety of those on the front lines of the pro-life and pregnancy support efforts; pray for the Supreme Court justices, legislators, and law enforcement officials; pray for our country and for repentance; and pray for peace, justice, and a great spiritual awakening to sweep across our land.
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