Partnering with CompassCare to Hold Violent Offenders Accountable

Thomas More Society has launched an investigation into the increased violence against pro-life pregnancy resource centers, pro-life advocates, and churches. The not-for-profit, national public interest law firm counts numerous pro-life advocacy groups and service providers among its clientele, including CompassCare, headquartered in Rochester, New York, with which it is partnering in the investigation.

“We both have a vested interest in the inquiry,” stated Tom Brejcha, Thomas More Society Founder, President and Chief Counsel. "CompassCare’s Buffalo, New York, office was firebombed in June 2022, during a wave of violence perpetrated by pro-abortion groups, who wore masks and used assumed names such as 'Jane’s Revenge.' But these perpetrators, now on the FBI’s most wanted list, have not been identified or apprehended, not one of them.”

“My own suburban Chicago residence was vandalized by a pro-abortion mob of around 50 masked thugs on July 1, 2022,” shared Brejcha. “They brandished menacing signs and spray-painted obscenities (using F-words) and anti-life threats, such as 'If abortions aren’t safe, you aren’t either,' on our driveway and sidewalk. They handed out flyers claiming that Thomas More Society and I defended anti-abortion ‘extremists’ (i.e., those who believe that each human life is sacred) and helped overturn Roe v. Wade. They ignited flaring clusters of smoke bombs, uprooted my wife’s rosebush, and hurled paint bombs against our home, leaving indelible green stains.”

The attacks on CompassCare and the Brejcha residence were serious incidents, mirrored across the country, in response to calls for violence issued by radical abortion promoters in the wake of the May 2, 2022, leak of the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson. The leak foreshadowed the actual June 24, 2022, ruling of the High Court, overturning Roe v. Wade. Sources have reported up to 78 documented incidents of attacks on life-affirming pregnancy resource centers and pro-life groups’ offices between May 3, 2022, and December 17, 2022, and hundreds of vandalism and “invasion” incidents at churches nationwide.

In August 2022, FBI Director Christopher Wray told the U.S. Senate that the bureau had opened “a number” of investigations into reports of violence at an estimated 3,000 pro-life pregnancy resource centers and offices. A month later, House Republicans, critical of FBI efforts to stem the tide of violence or even apprehend any of its perpetrators, introduced the Protect Pregnancy Care Centers Act of 2022, designed to require the Biden administration to disclose to what extent it is investigating attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers.

“Thomas More Society’s efforts to pursue its own investigation of this wave of violence against pro-life organizations and pregnancy centers, together with our client CompassCare, are necessary and proper,” added Brejcha. “Our attorneys are dedicated to restoring respect in law and religious liberty, and there are civil as well as criminal law remedies which we may well utilize, as we work in cooperation with federal and state law enforcement. What we’re seeking is to bring the perpetrators of this lawless violence to justice, which is squarely within our mission and our institutional competence."