American Family Planning, formerly known as The Ladies Center and as Community Healthcare Center, was a clinic in
Pensacola, Florida, providing
abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...
s and other women's healthcare services. It is notable as the site of a number of acts of
anti-abortion violence
Anti-abortion violence is violence committed against individuals and organizations that perform abortions or provide abortion counseling. Incidents of violence have included destruction of property, including vandalism; crimes against people, ...
.
Perhaps best-known was the 1994 murder of Dr.
John Britton. Britton was a physician working at the clinic; he and his escort James Barrett were shot to death as they arrived on July 29 by anti-abortion protester
Paul Jennings Hill
Paul Jennings Hill (February 6, 1954 – September 3, 2003) was an American minister and anti-abortion terrorist who murdered physician John Britton and Britton's bodyguard, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Barrett, in 1994. Hill was ...
. Barrett's wife June was also wounded.
Previously, the clinic had been bombed twice in 1984; a pipe bomb destroyed the building on June 25 of that year, and four youths—Matt Goldsby, Jimmy Simmons, Kathy Simmons, and Kaye Wiggins—bombed it on Christmas Day, calling the crime "a gift to Jesus on his birthday." These bombers stated that they were also behind the June bombing.
On January 1, 2012, Bobby Joe Rogers firebombed the clinic with a
Molotov cocktail
A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with fla ...
; the fire gutted the building. Rogers told investigators that he was motivated to commit the crime by his opposition to abortion, and that what more directly prompted the act was seeing a patient enter the clinic during one of the frequent anti-abortion protests there.
It was shuttered by the Florida
Agency for Health Care Administration in 2022 after multiple clients had parts of their internal organs removed and had to be hospitalized.
References
Further reading
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{{Abortion
American abortion providers
Medical and health organizations based in Florida
Anti-abortion violence in the United States
Pensacola, Florida
1974 establishments in Florida
2022 disestablishments in Florida
1990s crimes in Florida
Clinics in Florida