As Buffalo Center Reopens, Congresswoman Moves to Protect Pro-Life Groups

Dan M. BergerAugust 1, 2022

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As a torched pregnancy center reopened near Buffalo, New York, on Monday, leaders vowed to continue their work and criticized authorities for a slow-walking investigation and even appearing to condone the attack.

Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) told the crowd she had introduced the Pregnancy Resource Center Defense Act to increase prison terms and fines for attacks on anti-abortion centers like the CompassCare Pregnancy Services.

The fire that damaged the center began around 2:30 a.m. on June 7. Police have not yet announced the cause as arson nor arrested anyone.

The center’s director, Rev. Jim Harden, said their security cameras captured video of multiple attackers with multiple incendiary devices, probably Molotov cocktails. Police confiscated the security camera footage, and the center can’t get at it, Harden said.

Damage at the CompassCare pregnancy center in Amherst, N.Y. Its windows were shattered and fires set inside early on June 7, 2022. Spray-painted on one wall was the message “Jane was here.” An pro-abortion group called Jane’s Revenge took credit for the attack. (Dan Berger/The Epoch Times)

The graffiti “Jane was here” was scrawled on the side of the building, and a pro-abortion group called Jane’s Revenge took credit for the firebombing afterward. It was one of numerous such attacks on such centers, which offer counseling, care, and support to pregnant women to persuade them to keep their babies.

Tenney, Harden, and New York State Sen. George Borrello expressed contempt for the state’s official response to the incident, which Harden said caused $250,000 in damage and another $150,000 in increased security costs.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, they said, responded to the incident by moving to investigate, not Jane’s Revenge, but the centers themselves. She termed pro-lifers “Neanderthals” less than two weeks after the attack. State Attorney General Letitia James demanded