Police investigate Peoria Planned Parenthood fire as arson

CHICAGO — A fireplace at a central Illinois Deliberate Parenthood clinic is being investigated as arson, Peoria police stated Tuesday, simply days after the state enacted sweeping abortion protections.

Officers responded to a report of an “unknown particular person throwing a Molotov cocktail” into the Peoria clinic constructing at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, police spokesperson Semone Roth stated.

Peoria police and fireplace officers are investigating the blaze, and no suspects have been recognized or arrests made, Roth stated.

The incident occurred two days after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into legislation reproductive well being care laws to guard out-of-state abortion seekers, including Illinois to the listing of states which have positioned authorized reinforcements across the process after the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s resolution to overturn Roe v. Wade.

No sufferers or workers have been inside throughout the fireplace, however it precipitated “important harm” to the constructing, stated Jennifer Welch, President and CEO of Deliberate Parenthood of Illinois in a press release.

The clinic is at the moment closed, and the group is rescheduling sufferers who had appointments to different well being care facilities, and providing transportation help to those that want it.

The Peoria Deliberate Parenthood location provided treatment abortion however was not a website for in-clinic procedures, stated Welch, who pledged to prosecute the perpetrator “to the fullest extent of the legislation.”

“The overwhelming majority of our Peoria Well being Middle sufferers have been coming to us for household planning, STI testing and therapy and different reproductive well being care,” she stated. “This act of vandalism could have a devastating influence on the neighborhood’s capability to entry contraception, most cancers screenings and gender-affirming care.”

Anti-abortion group Illinois Proper to Life govt director Mary Kate Zander condemned the incident, saying: “We’d by no means condone violence in opposition to any Deliberate Parenthood or some other abortion clinic.” She added: “The first cause that we stand in opposition to abortion is that it is an act of violence. So it could be hypocritical of us to not say the identical within the case of an act of violence in opposition to abortion employees.” ___

Savage is a corps member for the Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points.