FBI offers $15,000 for help identifying suspect in pro-life pregnancy center vandalism

By Joe Bukuras

Boston, Mass., May 10, 2023 / 15:30 pm

The FBI’s Omaha, Nebraska, field office is offering a major reward to anyone who can help identify the individual or group who vandalized a pro-life pregnancy center in Des Moines, Iowa, in June 2022. 

The request comes following a yearlong string of attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers across the nation, which began after it was reported in May 2022 that Roe v. Wade would be overturned.

The bureau is offering $15,000 to anyone providing information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the individual or group who broke windows and left graffiti on the Agape Pregnancy Resource Center.

“Fake clinic,” “Stop lying,” and “This place is not safe” were a few of the phrases spray-painted on the exterior of the clinic. The clinic was vandalized on both June 3, 2022, and June 4, 2022, in the early hours of the morning.

According to KCRG, credit for the damage was taken by “Jane’s Revenge,” a term that became a calling card of sorts for dozens of pro-abortion vandals after the May leak from the Supreme Court.

The FBI’s press release said that on June 3, an “associated structure” to the pregnancy center was vandalized as well but did not provide further details. That structure is located at 2222 Bennett Ave.

The FBI’s Omaha field office can be contacted at (402) 493-8688. Those with information on the crimes may also contact their local FBI office, nearest American embassy or consulate, or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.

There have been more than 60 attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers since May 2022, and only six reported arrests. 

Earlier this year, the Department of Justice brought FACE Act charges against two Floridians, 27-year-old Caleb Freestone and 23-year-old Amber Smith-Stewart, for spray-painting threats on a pro-life clinic in Winter Haven, Florida; an archdiocesan pro-life pregnancy center in Hollywood, Florida; and one of Heartbeat of Miami’s pro-life pregnancy centers in Hialeah, Florida.

The FACE Act prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.”

Those arrests were the first two reported law enforcement successes against any of the attacks on American pro-life pregnancy centers. 

In March 2023, two more individuals, Gabriella Oropesa and Annarella Rivera, were federally indicted for taking part in the Florida attacks along with Freestone and Smith-Stewart. Both Oropesa and Rivera are accused of attacking two of the three Florida clinics. 

In March 2023, 39-year-old Hannah Kamke was arrested in connection with the March 16 act of vandalism committed at a pro-life pregnancy center in Amherst, New York, the same clinic that was seriously damaged in an arson attack in June 2022. Kamke was arrested by local police, but the FBI assisted in the investigation.

Also arrested in March by the FBI was Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury, 29, who was charged with violating federal law in connection with the May 2022 firebombing of a pro-life organization’s Madison, Wisconsin, office.

Joseph Bukuras is a journalist at the Catholic News Agency.  Joe has prior experience working in state and federal government, in non-profits, and Catholic education. He has contributed to an array of publications and his reporting has been cited by leading news sources, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Catholic University of America. He is based out of the Boston area.