Bombing of fertility clinic blamed on 'antinatalist'

Fertility clinic in Palm Springs after car bomb — The 'targeted attack against the IVF facility' was deemed an 'intentional act of terrorism'

(Image credit: Gabriel Osorio / AFP via Getty Images)

What happened

The FBI Sunday said a 25-year-old with "nihilistic ideations" was the primary suspect, and only fatality, in a car bombing on Saturday that damaged a fertility clinic and nearby buildings in Palm Springs, California, and injured four people. Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, called the "targeted attack against the IVF facility" an "intentional act of terrorism" and probably the "largest bombing scene that we've had in Southern California."

Who said what

Davis said the "primary suspect," Guy Edward Bartkus, appeared to have tried to livestream the explosion and the FBI was studying a "possible manifesto" tied to the bomber. The writings were "anti-pro-life," said U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli. The suspect appeared to be "antinatalist," a law enforcement source told the Los Angeles Times, and he "used a very large amount of explosives — so many that the bomb shredded his remains."

The antinatalism movement, which considers procreating unethical or unjustifiable, "specifically condemns violence," Brian Levin, an extremism expert at Cal State San Bernardino, told the Times. The bomber's "purported rambling, idiosyncratic 'political’ statements'" suggest he was a "hopeless unstable young man" driven to a "brutal death" by a "personally distorted embrace of an obscure anti-life ideology."

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What next?

Dr. Maher Abdallah, who leads the bombed American Reproductive Centers clinic, said on social media that none of the embryos stored there were damaged and the clinic would be fully operational Monday morning. "Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients," he told The Associated Press on Saturday.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.