State Rep. Mia McLeod announced Monday that she is calling on Gov. Nikki Haley to increase security at women’s health centers throughout South Carolina. Specifically, McLeod wants Haley to work with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and local law enforcement agencies to ramp up monitoring at these facilities.
This move comes less than one week after a gunman killed three and wounded nine at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. The suspect in this shooting, Robert Lewis Dear, was found to be native of the Charleston area.
"It doesn't matter whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, our focus right now should be to make sure what happened in Colorado Springs doesn't happen in Columbia or Charleston," McLeod said in a press release.
The Richland Democrat also cited an FBI warning issued in September regarding increased threats to clinics.
"The FBI warned us that attacks on women's health centers were likely and now three people are dead, including one police officer," McLeod said.
There have been four instances of suspected arson against clinics and five cases of vandalism across the U.S. since the July release of heavily edited videos claiming to show illegal abortion practices at a Planned Parenthood clinic. This is compared to just one case of arson and 12 cases of vandalism in all of 2014. Incidents of harassment at Planned Parenthood facilities have grown nine times as large since the videos were released as well.
Haley spokesperson Chaney Adams told The Post and Courier that both SLED and the Department of Homeland Security have confirmed to Haley that there are no specific threats against southeastern Planned Parenthood facilities.
“The governor will continue to communicate with law enforcement to make sure we do everything to keep all South Carolinians safe, as violence is never acceptable in our state,” Chaney said to The Post and Courier.
More Like This
