Angel Dillard is set to stand trial in federal district court in Wichita, Kansas, for alleged violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. But as this timeline shows, anti-abortion violence in the city long predates Dillard.
Convicted murderer Scott Roeder is set to be re-sentenced in connection with the death of Dr. George Tiller while his associate Angel Dillard will stand trial for threatening another Wichita, Kansas abortion provider. These are particularly alarming developments at a time when anti-choice violence has spiked.
A federal judge concluded that Angel Dillard's letter to abortion provider Dr. Mila Means, which warned Means she should check her car for explosives, is protected speech, demonstrating the challenges in keeping clinics, staff, and patients safe.
A ruling Friday finds conversations between Angel Dillard and Scott Roeder are confidential because Dillard was acting as a minister to Roeder in prison.
Papers filed in court by the U.S. Department of Justice reveal that a Kansas county jail inmate has asserted that Angel Dillard, a known anti-choice domestic terrorist, asked him last year to firebomb the home of Dr. Mila Means.
In addition to helping pass abortion restrictions at the state level, anti-choice activists are challenging those laws that do protect clinics and patients.
A siege at the only remaining abortion clinic in Kentucky Saturday suggests anti-choice extremists are returning to old methods of attacking clinics, testing the Department of Justice for a response.
Just two days after NARAL Pro-Choice America submitted a letter asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate anti-choice activities as domestic terrorism, an extremist opened fire on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, murdering three people and injuring nine others.