A 17-year-old from Waxahachie, Texas was arrested after threatening on Twitter to “commit jihad” on an abortion clinic.
The Dallas Morning News reports that while police did not specify what the teen said about abortion clinics, a tweet deleted on February 17 shows a man with his face covered, holding a gun, with the caption, “I’m going to commit jihad on an abortion clinic.” The teenager, Garison Riggs Pate, was charged with making a terroristic threat, a misdemeanor that could lead to up to 180 days in jail, and under Texas law he will be charged as an adult.
Anti-abortion violence is rising under the Trump presidency. According to the National Abortion Federation’s latest report on violence against abortion clinics, incidents of trespassing, death threats, and incidents of obstruction rose from 580 in 2016 to more than 1,700 in 2017. Anti-abortion extremists making threats of violence or death nearly doubled at abortion clinics in 2017. And late last year Rachelle Shannon, the anti-abortion extremist who shot and wounded Witchita abortion provider George Tiller and attacked other clinics, was released from prison, putting abortion providers across the country on edge.