Today in Totally Not Terrorism

[Trigger warning for anti-choice terrorism.]

There are a lot of things that don't get called terrorism in this country, but chief among them is the anti-choice movement, which is the most brazen, unapologetic terrorist campaign in the US, its co-ordination and orchestration done right out in the open, where no one in the media or politics will call it what it is. It is an inherently violent ideology, backed by a decades-long campaign of intimidation, harassment and violence directed at abortion providers and abortion seekers, that is ignored by one party and mainstreamed as a central plank of its party platform by the other.

Last week, I wrote about a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas which had been damaged by a Molotov cocktail, and now, via Robin, I see that the FBI is seeking tips after a women's clinic in Detroit was damaged by a suspicious package.

The FBI is asking for the public's help in identifying whoever is responsible for leaving a suspicious package outside of the Summit Women’s Center in Detroit earlier this month.

The package, according to a news release from the FBI, caused damage to the building, located at 15801 W. McNichols. The package was left sometime after 1:30 p.m. July 16 and before 8:30 a.m. July 18, according to the FBI.

According to the center's Web site, the center is an abortion clinic and provides gynecological services, STD testing and birth control option counseling.

This shit doesn't happen in a void. It happens in a toxic cultural mix of endemic misogyny, hostility for choice and consent, violent rhetoric, and a political climate in which even ostensible defenders of reproductive choice talk about abortion in dishonest and unhelpful and clueless ways; that is, when they're not being totally silent on the issue.

We are without serious allies.