Arson destroys abortion clinic

A fire that destroyed a Planned Parenthood health clinic in Knoxville, Tenn., was arson, the city Fire Department said last week, as federal and local investigators try to identify who was behind the attack.

The Fire Department received a call about the fire early on Dec. 31, when the Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi clinic was closed for renovations. The investigation is the second in the past year to focus on a crime against the clinic, which provided birth control, cancer screenings and medication abortions.

Last January, someone with a gun shot at the clinic and shattered its glass front door. A spokesperson for the Knoxville Police Department, Scott Erland, said the shooting case remained unsolved and that no suspect had been identified. The FBI said it was assisting with that investigation.

Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, noted that the shooting took place on the same day as the 48th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade, the decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.

Coffield said the organization was not intimidated. “We are on the same track that we were on before the fire, which is, we are planning to expand in Knoxville,” she said.

When the fire tore through the building on the morning of New Year’s Eve, the clinic was near completing a $2.2 million renovation that Coffield said would have expanded its existing services and enabled them to provide surgical abortions.

The renovation is a complete loss, but Coffield and the organization’s chief development officer, Aimee Lewis, said their morale had been boosted by the supportive messages and donations they had received since the fire.