New Mexico Pro-Life Advocates Strongly Condemn Abortion Facility Attacks

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Dec 27, 2007   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

New Mexico Pro-Life Advocates Strongly Condemn Abortion Facility Attacks Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 27
, 2007

Albuquerque, NM (LifeNews.com) — Pro-life advocates in New Mexico are strongly condemning the fires that have occurred at three local abortion businesses this month. A private abortion business was the target of an arson attack earlier this month and two Planned Parenthood centers were vandalized on Christmas Day, with one catching fire and the other having broken windows.

Though Planned Parenthood of America president Cecile Richards made up her mind that pro-life advocates must be responsible, pro-life groups in New Mexico reject the violence.

Betty Eicheneser, the president of the Right to Life Committee of New Mexico, talked with the Albuquerque Tribune about the arsons and said her organization says the actions are not appropriate as a means of responding to legalized abortion.

"Our mission is to educate. We never, ever condone violent behavior. That is not pro-life activity," Eicheneser said.

Eicheneser said the actions hurt the pro-life cause because they turn the public off to the pro-life message and don’t stop abortions — both Planned Parenthood centers reopened on Wednesday, just one day after the attacks there.

"That is not going to change anyone’s mind," Eicheneser told the Tribune. "In fact, it does more harm to our goal, because for those in the middle, perhaps it is going to swing them in the opposite direction, and anyone who is on that side, all it does is affirm their beliefs."

Rev. Stephen Imbarrato, with the Catholic Project Defending Life told the Albuquerque newspaper he disagrees with the use of violence as well.

"I was very dismayed, because, unfortunately, pro-lifers get blamed for these things. It makes our lives more difficult, and it detracts from our credibility," he said.

"You have anti-abortion fanatics that get involved in these types of things," Imbarrato added. "But the real violence is perpetrated by the abortionists."

Firefighters were called to the two abortion centers but, as with the third blaze, were able to put it out within minutes.

According to local authorities, some sort of incendiary device had been thrown on the roof of the Planned Parenthood building at 701 San Mateo Blvd N.E., causing the fire.

Earlier on the morning of Christmas Day, officials responded to an earlier call at another Planned Parenthood facility, located at 3625 Central Ave. N.E., where they responded to reports that its windows were broken.

New Mexico officials ruled a mid-December blaze at the Abortion Acceptance Of New Mexico center was an arson. There, firefighters managed to douse the fire quickly enough to salvage the building. Jake Gonzales, of the Albuquerque office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told the Albuquerque Tribune that no one was injured in the blaze and that the fire damaged an exam room.

Officials say people at a nearby hotel noticed two suspects wearing hooded jackets or sweaters outside the abortion business late in the evening before the fire.

Gonzales said the witnesses heard a loud boom that may have come from gasoline fumes after the suspects dumped a small container of gasoline in the room.

The newspaper reported that samples from the fire have been sent to BATF laboratories that could help in the case. However, officials are asking anyone with additional information to contact authorities.

That abortion business is run by Curtis Boyd, who has done abortions in New Mexico since 1972 and was involved in establishing the National Abortion Federation, a national trade group for abortion businesses.
Boyd’s wife, Glenna Halvorson-Boyd has served on NAF’s Board of directors and as the organization’s president for two years during the mid-1980s.

The abortion center does both surgical abortions and distributes the dangerous abortion drug RU 486 (mifepristone) that has killed thirteen women worldwide and injured more than 1,100 in the United States alone.

Women pay anywhere from $425 to $1,895 for an abortion depending on how far along the baby is in the pregnancy.

Abortion practitioner Bruce Ferguson runs an abortion center in the same office building as Boyd.

Related web sites:
Right to Life Committee of New Mexico – https://www.rtlnm.org