As Republicans seek to eradicate the right to privacy in gerrymandered state legislatures and stacked courtrooms around the country, a federal grand jury in Columbus, Ohio, returned an indictment charging an man for trying to deprive women of their right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy the old fashioned way: threatening to bomb a reproductive health services facility.
According to court documents, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Brime, 25, of Columbus, Ohio, made two separate telephone threats to an Ohio reproductive health services clinic.
Rodriguez Prime twice on April 11, 2021 called and threatened Your Choice Healthcare, a clinic where staff physicians are able to provide abortion pills, birth control, and emergency contraception to keep patients safe and healthy.
Your Choice Healthcare does not offer surgical abortions, but it does offer oral medication to induce abortions up to 9 weeks and 6 days and provides pelvic exams, birth control, IUDs and more.
Ohio law requires an initial consent visit with a doctor at least 24-hours before having an abortion. During the consultation, medical staff use ultrasound to determine the gestational age of the pregnancy and a doctor reviews options with the patient.
The first count charges Brime with a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which makes it a federal crime to threaten the use of force to intimidate anyone receiving or providing reproductive health services.
The second count charges Brime with making threatening statements through interstate communications and the third count charges Brime with making a bomb threat.
The charges stem from two separate telephoned threats that Brime made to a reproductive health care clinic on April 11, in which Brime made a death threat and a bomb threat.
If convicted of the offenses, Brime faces up to a maximum of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
The clinic offers free one dose pills that help prevent pregnancy up to 72-hours after unprotected sex. The emergency contraceptive, Preventeza, uses the same ingredient as most birth controls pills—just at a higher dose—to prevent pregnancy before it starts.
The clinic also administers depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA, also known as DepoProvera), which is an injectable progestin-only contraceptive that provides highly effective, private, three-month-long reversible contraception.
The facility also promotes a safe and effective way to end an early pregnancy up to 9 weeks 6 days gestation using the ‘pill method,’ or medical abortion using oral two pills to end a pregnancy, instead of surgery.
To end an unwanted pregnancy in the early stages of gestation, considered less than 10 weeks, mifepristone is used together with another medication called misoprostol.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Columbus Resident Agency of the Cincinnati Field Office and the Columbus Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Sanjay Patel of the Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Czerniejewski.