When a young man detonated a car bomb in the parking lot of a Palm Springs, California, fertility clinic last week, killing himself and injuring four others, I assumed the attack was related in some distorted way to pro-life politics. Despite the Trump administration's recent embrace of in vitro fertilization, some pro-lifers, especially conservative Catholics, are opposed to the practice because it can lead to the disposal of embryos. That fact, coupled with the historical association between extreme anti-abortion sentiment and clinic bombings, led me to anticipate a news cycle concerning radical efforts to restrict abortion. I was wrong. The bombing, carried out by a 25-year-old California native named Guy Edward Bartkus, was an attempt to prevent couples from accessing IVF, not because the process produces some embryos that wind up dead, but rather because it produces some embryos that wind up alive. Bartkus, who left behind an online screed titled 'Fuck you pro-lifers!' complete...
learn more