Early Saturday morning, a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, was struck by a bomb that injured four people and appeared to kill the suspect behind the bombing, a 25-year-old man identified by the FBI as Guy Edward Bartkus. New information is still coming to light about the suspected terror attack on the American Reproductive Centers clinic, but what we already know is disturbing: Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, described the bombing as both an “act of intentional terrorism” and “the largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California.” According to the Los Angeles Times, the attack “tore through the clinic and sent debris blocks away.” One community member said they heard the blast from nine blocks away and their roommate heard it from their home six miles away.
The outlet reports that the attack “ripped the building in half,” but, thankfully, the clinic’s director said in a statement that no patients and no embryos were harmed because the clinic was closed at the time: “Our lab—including all eggs, embryos, and reproductive materials—remains fully secure and undamaged. Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is.”
Here’s what we know so far about Bartkus’ possible motives and the extensive digital footprint he appears to have intentionally left online before the attack.
What happened to the suspect?
Law enforcement sources told the Times that the attack on the American Reproductive Centers clinic involved such a large amount of explosives that the bomb “shredded [Bartkus’] remains” in his car, even as he “may not have intended to be killed in the blast.” FBI investigators say they believe Bartkus was attempting to livestream the attack. At the same time, a website that appears to be linked to the blast states, “Here you can download the recorded stream of my suicide & bombing of an IVF clinic,” though no recorded stream exists. Speaking of the website…
What we know about the suspect’s possible motives
Law enforcement officials say they’ve uncovered a trove of materials online that appear offer alarming details about the suspect’s motives. These include social media accounts, a website containing a manifesto, and a YouTube account offering details about explosives and a planned attack on a fertility clinic. On the website that FBI officials believe was created by Bartkus, he describes himself as “anti-life,” a “pro-mortalist,” and an “anti-natalist” who condemns procreation. His end goal, he wrote, is “sterilizing this planet of the disease of life” because “life can only continue as long as people hold the delusional belief that it is not a zero sum game causing senseless torture, and messes it can never, or only partially, clean up.”
The same website also includes a 30-minute audio file in which the speaker begins by promising to explain “why I’ve decided to bomb an IVF building or clinic”—he then explains, “Basically, it just comes down to I’m angry that I exist and that, you know, nobody got my consent to bring me here.” On an especially confusing note, Bartkus also appears to have called for a “war against pro-lifers”—even though the anti-abortion movement increasingly poses the greatest threat to fertility clinics like American Reproductive Centers. So!
The website linked to the attack further spells out other fringe ideologies, like “abolitionist veganism,” which the Times describes as “the opposition to all animal use by humans,” and “negative utilitarianism,” an ideology calling for us to minimize suffering rather than maximize pleasure, and achieve this by eradicating sentient beings as soon as possible. The Times was not able to independently confirm whether Bartkus created the website. The outlet uncovered domain data, which indicated the website was created in February.
Law enforcement officials also point to the recent death of one of Bartkus’ close friends as a possible motivating factor. The website linked to Bartkus alludes to as much, and police also reviewed the recent death records of a Washington woman named Sophie, who appears to have been the friend in question.
An alarming time for extremism and the online radicalization of young men?
Brian Levin, the founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and professor emeritus at Cal State San Bernardino, told the Times that Bartkus’s alleged actions reflect a growing trend of young men radicalized by obscure ideologies they find online. These men, often isolated in their real lives, then find community in extremist spaces and are sometimes galvanized to take violent action—often retaliating against female partners or targeting women’s spaces.
“Today, we basically have a DIY ecosystem where lone folks can engage in conduct that previously tilted more towards groups and small cells,” Levin said. “There’s a whole cauldron that involves radicalization, misinformation, legitimization of violence as a method within this grievance set and that’s what you have.”
Attacks on reproductive care clinics are disturbingly common
In 2023, the National Abortion Federation reported that, in 2022, the year that Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion clinics across the country saw a 538% increase in people obstructing clinic entrances (from 45 in 2021 to 287 in 2022); a 913% increase in stalking of clinic staff (from 8 in 2021 to 81 in 22); and a 144% increase in bomb threats.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration scaled back federal protections for reproductive care clinics, directing his Justice Department to limit enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. President Trump also personally signed the pardons of over a dozen anti-abortion clinic protesters who were convicted for harassing, threatening, and in some cases physically attacking staff and volunteers at abortion clinics.
What reproductive rights and community leaders are saying
“Fertility treatments, including IVF, have become increasingly politicized by far-right extremists over the past couple of years,” Equality California Director Tony Hoang said in a statement shortly after the attack. “No one should fear for their safety while accessing healthcare.”
On Saturday, Center for Reproductive Rights President Nancy Northrup called the bombing “unconscionable.”
“While key facts including the target and motive of the bombing are still unconfirmed, the heated political debates around fertility treatments raise grave concerns that this could have been a targeted attack,” Northrup said in a statement. “The history of violence against reproductive health centers is why clinics need protections and patients must feel safe. That’s why Congress passed the FACE act over 30 years ago and why it needs to be strengthened and enforced, not repealed as some in Congress are pushing for.”
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