A 73-year-old Illinois man faces federal charges for attempting to burn down a future abortion clinic.
Philip J. Buyno, of Prophetstown, Ill., is accused of trying to incinerate a building being developed as a reproductive health clinic in Danville, Ill., according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Police encountered Buyno around 4:30 a.m. Saturday while responding to an alarm at a former eye doctor’s office that’s soon to provide women’s health services, according to Central Illinois news outlet WAND.
They found Buyno stuck inside a maroon Volkswagen Passat that he had backed into the entrance of the building, which is being renovated for use as a reproductive health clinic,” law enforcement said.
According to an affidavit, Buyno had with him several containers filled with gasoline. Charges against the septuagenarianinclude committing a terrorist threat. If convicted, the Prophetstown man faces up to 20 years in prison.
Danville’s city council banned the mailing of abortion pills earlier this month despite warnings from Illinois’ attorney general. The ACLU dismissed Danville’s ordinance as “unlawful and unenforceable.”
Clinic for Women, which is owned by an Indiana-based company, reportedly acquired the Danville property, in March. According to WAND, Danville’s community development administrator said the new owners hadn’t yet applied for a building permit. When its new owner will begin operating is unclear.
The Clinic for Women website says the health provider has ”provided safe, legal first trimester abortions” since 1977.
Abortion rights in some states have been compromised since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that made reproductive choice the law of the land in 1973.
Illinois passed a 2019 Reproductive Health Act protecting women’s reproductive rights.
“This Act sets forth the fundamental rights of individuals to make autonomous decisions about one’s own reproductive health, including the fundamental right to use or refuse reproductive health care,” the legislations reads.