Explosion Rocks California IVF Clinic in Apparent Extremist Attack

An explosion tore through a southern California fertility clinic on 17 May, and investigators are treating the incident as an act of terrorism.

The suspect—identified by the FBI as Guy Edward Bartkus, 25, of Twentynine Palms, a town roughly an hour’s drive away from the fertility clinic in question—died in the apparent car bomb detonation in Palm Springs, California. The alleged attacker left behind “anti-pro-life” writings before the explosion, authorities said. The writings indicated nihilistic and anti-natalist views, holding that people should not continue to procreate because it only exposes more people to future suffering and death, the FBI said. The writings signaled that the attack was targeted, leading law enforcement to announce they are treating it as an intentional act of terrorism.

A website that appeared connected to the bombing laid out the case for “a war against pro-lifers” and said a fertilization clinic would be targeted, according to the Los Angeles Times. The FBI has not confirmed that the website and its audio files were made by the alleged perpetrator, but investigators are assessing the purported manifesto. The author cited fringe philosophies including abolitionist veganism, which opposes all animal use by humans; negative utilitarianism, which directs people to minimize suffering rather than maximizing pleasure; pro-mortalism, which suggests that it’s best for sentient beings to die as soon as possible to prevent future suffering; and an end goal of “sterilizing this planet of the disease of life.”

Brian Levin, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, told the LA Times that the “antinatalism movement he links to specifically condemns violence. Still, his purported rambling, idiosyncratic ‘political’ statements paint a far different picture—that of a hopeless unstable young man whose suicidal despair stirs him into a self-consuming brutal death justified by a personally distorted embrace of an obscure anti-life ideology.”

Investigators alleged that the attacker was also trying to livestream the bombing—an increasingly familiar element to some extremist attacks.

The blast was strong, throwing vehicle debris hundreds of feet into the air and several blocks away, said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, at a press conference. The debris field stretched more than 250 yards. Apart from the alleged attacker, the bombing injured four other people, the Associated Press reported.

The FBI’s joint terrorism task force is working with local authorities to follow leads and trace Bartkus’s movements before the explosion. He was driving a 2010 silver Ford Fusion sedan with the California license plate 8HWS848.

“We know where Mr. Bartkus was at about 6:00 a.m., we know the timeline of when he entered the city,” Davis said during a press conference. “However, we need the public’s (help) for identifying where he traversed within the city before the explosion went off.”

The American Reproductive Centers Palm Springs facility was closed for the weekend at the time of the explosion, and no staff members were hurt, the group said on Facebook. The explosion damaged the practice’s office space, where it conducts consultations with patients. The facility’s in vitro fertilization (IVF) materials, including eggs and embryos, were stored off-site and were not damaged. “We are heavily conducting a complete safety inspection and have confirmed that our operations and sensitive medical areas were not impacted by the blast,” the post said.

Violence at fertility clinics in the United States is rare, especially compared to incidents at abortion providers. The National Abortion Federation reported an increase in violence—especially death threats, burglary, and stalking—against abortion providers in 2022 after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that effectively overturned Roe v. Wade. From 1977 to 2022, the group tallied that anti-abortion extremists carried out more than 500 assaults, 200 arsons, 42 bombings, and 11 murders against providers and supporters, the Desert Sun reported. But a representative from the National Abortion Federation told the paper that the group has not heard of any threats of physical violence against IVF providers despite recent anti-IVF procedure political rhetoric, and that Saturday’s bombing is the first targeted attack in their records.