An arsonist, driving a truck, set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in central Illinois, police said Tuesday, just days after the state enacted new laws protecting abortion rights.
The shooter used a «fire accelerator» around 11:31 p.m. CT Sunday in the 2700 block of North Knoxville Avenue, Planned Parenthood and Peoria police said.
The Peoria Fire Department extinguished the flames that were «contained to a room» as a «firefighter sustained non-life-threatening injuries,» police said in a statement.
No one was inside the building during the attack.
The arsonist «threw a fire accelerator through a window, starting a fire in the building,» Illinois Planned Parenthood Executive Director Jennifer Welch said in a statement.
«Wantless acts of vandalism have increased across the country and Illinois has become a target as extreme and divisive rhetoric increases,» Welch added.
The «preliminary cause of the fire was arson,» police said, also releasing pictures of the suspect’s truck.
the fire was set a little more than two days after Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed sweeping reproductive health care legislation into law Friday that protects people seeking an abortion out of state and adds other guarantees to abortion rights in the sixth most populous state of the United States with a population of 12.6 million inhabitants.
The location that was attacked Sunday does not perform «clinic procedures» but does provide other reproductive and sexual health services, according to Planned Parenthood.
«This act of vandalism will have a devastating impact on the community’s ability to access birth control, cancer screenings and gender-affirming care,» Welch said.
«We will not stop providing the essential health care our patients need and deserve. We are committed to working quickly to meet the needs of our Peoria patients and those who travel from other states for reproductive health care.»