Fire Damages Wash. Women's Health Clinic
Tuesday January 11, 2005 12:31 AM
By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP
Associated Press Writer
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4724898,00.html

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Fire severely damaged a women's clinic where abortions are performed, and investigators said the blaze was intentionally set.

The fire early Sunday heavily damaged the roof of the Eastside Women's Health Clinic and caused heat, water and smoke damage in offices, Olympia Fire Capt. Kate McDonald said. No one was injured.

Federal and local investigators said Monday that the fire was started with incendiary materials on the roof. The clinic was closed at the time.

Nancy Armstrong, one of the clinic's owners, said the fire destroyed old medical instruments and some documents stored in an attic crawl space, but did not damage patient records and will not put the clinic out of business.

Armstrong said the clinic had received no recent threats. It has been picketed weekly for 20 years without any violence.

It was unclear when the facility, which began operation in 1981 and receives 30 to 40 patients a day, would reopen.

The only confirmed arson at an abortion clinic in the United States last year was at a women's clinic in Lake Worth, Fla., in July, according to the National Abortion Federation. No injuries were reported.

An explosion in June 2001 outside a Tacoma medical clinic where a doctor performed abortions was investigated by the FBI. The federation's Web site indicated the case remains open.

Jan. 22 is the 32nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.