This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at McGill chapter.

Unfortunately, America has suffered yet again from a shooting last Friday. Robert Dear, a 59 year old man who in the past had been accused of domestic abuse, animal abuse, and of being a “Peeping Tom”, killed three people and wounded nine others.

According to CNN, Dear held a six hour long siege on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs that killed two civilians, a mother of two and an Iraq war veteran, and a police officer. The surrounding areas went on lockdown while a SWAT team was called in, and eventually Dear surrendered. Luckily, the nine wounded are reportedly recovering well.

There are more issues at play with these murders other than the horribly obvious problem of gun violence that has been prevalent in world news recently. Dear executed this attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic, making this shooting a politically charged event that, according to CNN, Attorney General Loretta Lynch called a “crime against women”.

As many already know, Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit organization in the United States that provides reproductive health services. In the past few months, the organization has been involved in a lot of controversies. During the summer, a heavily edited viral video that made Planned Parenthood look as though they were selling ‘Aborted Baby Parts’ caused a public uproar. The video made Planned Parenthood and abortion rights a hugely debated topic in the 2016 presidential campaign; many GOP candidates have condemned Planned Parenthood, while Democrats stood by it and refuted the video’s accuracy.

The Planned Parenthood organization has been extremely important in giving hundreds and thousands of women access to health services that they have the right to utilize; however, their abortion services have made the organization a target in the past. A separate article could be written on the fact that attacks on abortion access severely impact the health and lives of women. In Texas, for example, between 100,000 and 240,000 women have attempted to induce self-abortions because of legislators’ attempts to challenge abortion rights. The right to a safe abortion is legal and it is under attack.

It is very likely that Dear attacked the clinic because of his anti-abortion view; CNN reports that he made remarks about “baby parts”. This terrible attack may have been fueled by the controversial video that many believe is extremely edited and fake. If so, then the makers of the video should be held accountable. This horrific event needs to open a discussion about issues in America that need to be addressed, such as abortion rights, gun violence, and domestic terrorism.

Another cause for concern is the responses to these attacks from anti-abortionists on social media. On Twitter, for example, multiple people applauded the attack for saving the lives of unborn babies, and some said they did not feel bad about the dead or the injured in Dear’s siege because of their possible reasons for being at Planned Parenthood.

In the wake of such a tragedy, the nation should be honoring the lives that were lost. There have been too many shootings in America and worldwide, and legislators need to work towards curbing the violence. Things need to change. Violence and hatred should not be a normal part of American life, nor any life for that matter.

Information obtained from:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/28/us/colorado-planned-parenthood-shooting/

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/07/15/3680714/planned-parenthood-controversy/

https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us

https://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/6714/1996/2641/2013-2014_Annual_Report_FINAL_WEB_VERSION.pdf

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/17/texas-women-self-induced-abortions-study

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29176461/police-search-planned-parenthood-clinic-following-gunman-attack

Images obtained from:

http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/the-planned-parenthood-shooti…

http://time.com/4128435/presidential-candidates-respond-to-planned-paren…