Arsonist Destroys Life Saving Pregnancy Center in Oregon

Headline from the Albany (OR) Democrat Herald: Pregnancy center will have to be torn down

On 10 September 2008 an arsonist started a fire at the Pregnancy Alternatives Center in Lebanon, OR. That fire burned much of the building’s interior has left the structure virtually unusable.

Executive Director Debbie Tracy is working on finding an alternative location for the center to reopen. They are salvaging what they can, but it is turning out to be very little.

Last week the FBI announced a $5000 reward for info leading to the arrest of the person(s) responsible. (The FBI is asking anyone with information to call its Eugene bureau at (541) 343-5222 during normal business hours, its Portland bureau at (503) 224-4181 any time, or the Lebanon Police Department at 258-4319.) 1 of the ironies of this investigation is that the FBI is involved under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. That law was pushed through by abortion clinics to stop Pro-Life protesters.

While I suppose that it is possible, I highly doubt that 1 of the possible reasons investigators give for the arson is valid: "whether the arsonists set the fire because they falsely believed the clinic provides abortion services." Given the clinic has been there for 19 years & was listed in the Yellow Pages under "Abortion Alternatives" I am sure that whoever did this wasn't trying to close down a site where abortions take place. I suspect that it comes under another reason, because the arsonist(s) knew the clinic counsels against abortions. &, yes, there may be some other as yet undetermined reason that is unrelated to the site housing a clinic.

It is interesting to see how little national attention this arson has gotten. When some wacko burns down or bombs an abortion clinic, it is national news. & he/she is used to tar the whole Pro-Life movement even though those actions go against everything that a real Pro-Lifer stands for. So far, I have yet to even notice this making a blip, let alone get a small portion of the national attention it deserves. Pro-Lifers are supposed to be the violent ones. he truth is different. The violence that is out there (with few exceptions) comes from those who support abortion. They attack, they make death threats, vandalize property belonging to Pro-Lifers, yet us Pro-Lifers are the ones villianized.

When we speak the truth, we are accused of demonizing. Yet, that is what is being done to us all the time. An opinion article in a recent issue of the Beacon News about a defamation lawsuit filed by the Pro-Life Action League had the following to say: "Were Scheidler and the Pro-Life Action League associated with the radical pro-life zealots who have used violence and intimidation, as intimated in statements that led to their lawsuit against Planned Parenthood? That's not the question I'm asking." Talk about trying to blow off the truth as irrelevant.

Not only does the author dismiss the fact that they had been defamed, she goes on to do the very same thing she is supposedly attacking by bringing up past events involving people totally unrelated to Scheidler or the Pro-Life Action League. "We know that such zealots exist. I'm old enough to remember doctors being shot in their own kitchens and clinics being bombed. The question that matters to me is how such zealots are treated within any organization. Are they firmly told that intimidation, property damage and murder will not be tolerated, or are they quietly made heroes?" She knows very well that the Pro-Life Action League doesn't tolerate the things she brings up. Yet she carefully omits that well known fact. Thus she tars them with the guilt by association. She IS demonizing the Pro-Life side.

She even puts out the claim that we are demonizing Margaret Sanger by misqouting her. She knows very well that we have extensive proof to back up those claims.

The paper even had the gall to entitle the article: Put aside disrespect, hate in abortion debate while the author was doing the very thing thshe was supposedly decrying. She talks about both sides discouraging violent behavior, yet she only points out the violence done in the name (wrongly) of Pro-Life. Violence that has always been disowned by any genuine Pro-Lifer out there. Like I said, we are the ones being demonized, not Margaret Sanger, &/or the pro-abortion gang.

I don't know it the arson was by someone who is pro-abortion. If it turns out that the arsonist is, I can speak from experience that that person is more representative of the hate-filled attitude the pro-abortion side has towards us. Meanwhile, I will pray for the clinic to be reopen ASAP & that the guilty person(s) will quickly be brought to justice.

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The Pregnancy Alternatives Center is a member of PossiblyPregnant.org, a network of independent nonprofit pregnancy resource centers in NW Oregon.

H/T: American Life League