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Jane's Revenge
American militant abortion rights group From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Jane's Revenge was a militant,[1][2][3] extremist[4][5][6] abortion-rights group that encouraged and claimed responsibility[7] for acts of firebombing, vandalism, and arson in the United States. The group's actions targeted crisis pregnancy centers, a church, and a congressional office. The claimed attacks began in May 2022 following the leak of a draft of the Supreme Court's anticipated decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization; the draft indicated that the Court would soon overturn its 1973 abortion rights decision in Roe v. Wade, and the Court, in fact, did reverse Roe the following month when its final decision in Dobbs was released.
The group was mostly active during the spring and early summer of 2022.[8] Updates on the group's blog of further attacks ceased after July 8, 2022.[9]
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On May 6, 2022, a draft of the Supreme Court of the United States decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was leaked to the public.[10] The draft indicated that the Court intended to overturn two previous decisions, Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), which had conferred constitutional protections upon abortion rights. Jane's Revenge formed in response to the leak,[11][better source needed] posting its "First Communiqué" on May 8, 2022.[12] (The name "Jane's Revenge" may refer to the pseudonymous "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade or to the Jane Collective, an underground organization founded by Heather Booth in 1969 that helped women obtain abortions prior to Roe v. Wade.)[13] Posted after the firebombing of a crisis pregnancy center in Madison, Wisconsin, the "First Communiqué" read, in part, as follows:
This was only a warning. We demand the disbanding of all anti-choice establishments, fake clinics, and violent anti-choice groups within the next thirty days. This is not a mere "difference of opinion" as some have framed it. We are literally fighting for our lives... As you continue to bomb clinics and assassinate doctors with impunity, so too shall we adopt increasingly extreme tactics to maintain freedom over our own bodies. We are forced to adopt the minimum military requirement for a political struggle.[14][15]
The main public mouthpiece of Jane's Revenge is an anonymous blog that lists actions taken that have been signed "Jane's Revenge", and sometimes claims credit for said actions.[16] The firebombing in Madison, Wisconsin was the first incident for which Jane's Revenge claimed credit.[17][18]
On June 15, 2022, Jane's Revenge posted the following on its blog:
We were unsurprised to see thirty days come and thirty days pass with no sign of consilience or even bare-minimum self-reflection from you who impersonate healthcare providers in order to harm the vulnerable... You could have walked away. Now the leash is off... From here forward, any anti-choice group who closes their doors, and stops operating will no longer be a target. But until you do, it's open season, and we know where your operations are.[19]
Later, Jane's Revenge called for a "night of rage" to occur if the Court overturned Roe.[1]
After the June 24 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade was released, Jane's Revenge vandalized a crisis pregnancy center in Virginia,[20] and committed arson at a second center in Colorado.[21] The FBI was called in to investigate the instance of arson in Colorado.[22] Jane's Revenge has claimed responsibility for a series of other arson attacks and acts of vandalism, some of which occurred before Dobbs was released and some of which occurred afterwards.[7] Mary Ziegler, a law professor at University of California, Davis, has attributed the actions of the group to a growing distrust in government and democratic institutions.[6]
On June 28, The Intercept reported that Facebook had internally labeled Jane's Revenge a terrorist organization, making the topic subject to the most stringent content filtering.[23]
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In May 2022, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) stated that Jane's Revenge is the target of an ongoing investigation. The Madison, Wisconsin police department also announced an investigation of their own in collaboration with the ATF.[18]
In June 2022, after the Dobbs v. Jackson decision was released, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a memo concerning the group. The memo described Jane's Revenge as "a network of loosely affiliated suspected violent extremists [which] has been linked to arson attacks against the buildings of ideological opponents", warning of risk of violence that "could occur for weeks following the release" of the Supreme Court decision.[47]
In March 2023, a superseding indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice named four members of Jane's Revenge, whom they announced were facing prosecution under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act for conspiring to both vandalize and threaten multiple crisis pregnancy centers in Florida.[48] On June 14, 2024, three of the defendants, Caleb Freestone, Amber Stewart-Smith and Annarella Rivera, pled guilty to the charges[49] while the fourth, Gabriella Oropesa, was convicted by a jury on December 19, 2024.[50] Freestone, Stewart-Smith, and Rivera were sentenced to imprisonment in September 2024.[51] On February 12, 2025, Oropesa was fined a $10,000 civil penalty[52] and on March 13, 2025, she was sentenced to 120 days imprisonment.[53]
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