“Avoid anti-abortion centers – they mislead you about your options if you’re pregnant!”

This slogan appears on highway billboards, buses, and other public facilities in the state of Massachusetts. These taxpayer-funded attacks on pregnancy centers encourage women to “avoid” pro-life organizations.

What to do instead? “Get care you can trust.” And whom can you trust? The Massachusetts State Government, of course, complete with website links.

Need an abortion? “You may be able to get care for free or low-cost!”

Don’t know where to get one?

“Find Abortion Care in Massachusetts!”

SUPPORT LIFENEWS! If you want to help fight abortion, please donate to LifeNews.com!

The taxpayer-funded billboards went up across the state in June and the attacks appear on every form of social media imaginable.

In their tone and content, they are eerily reminiscent of the hundreds of attacks on Catholic churches, shrines, and, of course, pregnancy centers, in the past two years.

The attacks were fomented by the left after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision was leaked by a renegade liberal clerk at the Supreme Court two years ago.

Those were the days in which Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland, in sworn testimony before Congress, defended the mass demonstrations before the private homes of Supreme Court justices. Those threatening mobs included one heavily armed assailant whose sister miraculously convinced him to turn himself in at one o’clock in the morning as he stood in the dark a block from the residence of Justice Brett Kavanaugh with an arsenal capable of killing the justice, his family, and the two agents guarding their home.

Instead of attacking the lightly guarded family home, Nicholas John Roske called 911. It was that close.

The Massachusetts government website generously provides us with the names and addresses of pregnancy centers to avoid – or, for any potential Nicholas Rocke copycats, attacks.

Attacks on these centers have been going on for years. Where is the FBI?

Congress has repeatedly asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the attacks.

When asked why the Justice Department was so aggressive in its arrests of pro-life demonstrators, while ignoring the countless attacks on Christian, Catholic, and pro-life locations, Garland flippantly dismissed the criticism. But most of those attacks occurred “after dark,” he said, which apparently bestowed a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card on the criminals.

After all, our federal law enforcers must have a good night’s sleep in order the better to spy on practicing Catholics during the daytime.

It’s Not Only Massachusetts, It’s Everywhere

In May, the Foundation for Freedom Online reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had developed training programs that identified pro-life mothers as security threats.

“This is Ann, a resident of Elkville in rural America,” the fictional profile reads. “Ann has always been religious but since the death of her mother, she’s become increasingly devout. She’s a regular in the small-town community, active in several church groups. While she has always been protective of her four kids, she has become increasingly more concerned about the welfare of other children including the unborn.”

What should Ann’s preacher, her neighbor, or her hairdresser do if they witness Ann espousing her pro-life position?

“You may not know it, but ‘Ann’ and others like her have been identified as top ‘radicalization suspects,’” the Washington Times reported earlier this month.  Training profiles, just like “Ann’s,” are used by the Office of Terrorism and Violence Prevention to inform agents on who to keep a close eye on.

Just last week, anti-terrorism training slides at Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) were exposed for having pro-life groups listed—some by name — as “terrorist groups.” The training slide identified National Right to Life members as aspiring terrorists eager to bomb abortion facilities. They also branded as potential terrorists Operation Rescue and folks whose car carries “Choose Life” license plates provided by their state bureau of motor vehicles.

Of course, once the program was leaked to the public, the DHS claimed that it had been rescinded.

Of course, that’s also what the FBI said about the Richmond “Terrorist Trads” memo.

What was that all about?

FBI Targets Catholic “Extremists” – Then Gets Caught

Here in Virginia, a leaked document reveals that the FBI has targeted Catholics who “prefer the Latin Mass,” among others, as likely covens of “white supremacy.” In fact, a Catholic chapel less than five miles from PRI’s home office was regularly monitored by black, dark-windowed SUVs sporting copious antennae cruising through its parking lot during Mass.

The lengthy January 23, 2023 memo authored by an “intelligence analyst” for the Richmond Field Office of the FBI bearing a disturbing title: “Interest Of Racially Or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists And Radical – Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Present New Mitigation Opportunities.”

Several passages bear citing in full:

“FBI Richmond assesses the increasingly observed interest of racially are ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVES) and radical-traditionalist Catholic (RTC) ideology almost certainly presents opportunities for threat mitigation to the exploration of new avenues for tripwire and source development.”

“FBI Richmond makes this assessment with high confidence based on FBI investigations, local law enforcement agency reporting, and liaison reporting, with varying degrees of corroboration and access.”

“FBI Richmond will continue to attempt to connect with the RTC adherence, both virtually via social media and in person at places of worship. RTCs are typically characterized by the rejection of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) as a valid Church council; disdain for most of the popes elected since Vatican II, particularly pro-Francis and Pope John Paul II, and frequent adherence to antisemitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ and white supremacist ideology.”

Federal bureaucrats love acronyms, but they evidently hate Catholics. If this memo is any indicator, they hate pro-lifers too.

And what’s the action item? The “expert” expresses “high confidence” that the FBI can mitigate the threat of Radical-Traditionalist Catholics by recruiting sources within the Catholic Church.

This incident is troubling on several levels. It reflects the overall left-secular consciousness that prevails in the Deep State. It reflects the Justice Department’s channeling of this administration’s hatred of pro-lifers down to the ground level. It reflects the lingering hatred of genuine Catholicism that has prevailed since before the Founding. It reflects the laziness that pervades the Deep State bureaucracy since it was based on two notorious left-wing public sources.

Moreover, because we have seen it only because it was leaked to an “X” (formerly Twitter) source who is apparently a veteran of the FBI, and such disclosure is rare indeed, it indicates that there are many more memos like it that have not been leaked.

As usual, the FBI acknowledged the memo, apologized, and claimed it was withdrawn. However, the malicious spirit of suspicion reflected in the memo prevails far beyond the Richmond FBI. Merrick Garland’s zealous prosecution of pro-lifers and the unduly harsh sentences dealt to elderly grandmothers by arrogant Democrat appointees to the federal bench bear witness to the Democrat left’s forceful execution of Obama’s slogan of “empathy”: threats, intimidation, and unceasing public denunciations of “potential terrorist Catholics” in the pro-life movement.

After all, Kamala Harris now fervently embraces the Democrats’ secret sauce in its barbarous campaign against Donald Trump: abortion is the killer issue that will bring them victory after they count the votes in November.

LifeNews Note: Christopher Manion writes for the Population Research Institute, where his column originally appeared.