Days after an intruder broke in and started a fire at Planned Parenthood’s Mt. Auburn health center, clinic leaders, elected officials and longtime protesters came together to condemn the incident.
Investigators said the fire was intentionally set late Thursday night when the building was empty.
Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio CEO Nan Whaley said surveillance footage shows the suspect entering, igniting a small storage area and leaving within minutes. The Cincinnati Fire Department said the case is being treated as arson, but a suspect has not yet been identified.
Whaley said the fire, though damaging, did not impede the clinic’s ability to serve patients.
“If the goal was to scare Planned Parenthood into closing our doors, they failed,” Whaley said. “This is the reality for abortion providers. Extremists are emboldened by baseless attacks and harmful rhetoric.”
WATCH: Community leaders and abortion opponents condemn arson at Mt. Auburn Planned Parenthood clinic
Gwen Perry, assistant medical director for Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio, said leadership and staff showed up the next morning to ensure the clinic opened as scheduled.
"If I'm honest, my first response when I heard of the attack ... was, 'Oh, hell no.' It's unacceptable,“ Perry said. "Every single person was looking past their fears and their concerns and their questions to show up and be present for the people who counted on us. Because that’s what we do.”
Congressional leaders also spoke at Tuesday's press conference. U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman (OH-1) praised both clinic staff and emergency responders.
"This is health care. These are health care workers, and folks need their health care, and these folks aren't going anywhere," Landsman said. "They made a commitment to serve, to care for their patients and they will not be intimidated by hate or violence."
State Rep. Ashley Bryant Bailey (OH-26) called the incident an intentional act of violence meant to intimidate.
"Let's be clear about what's at stake," Bailey said. "It's not just about abortion. It's about birth control, prenatal care, cancer screening, basic essential health services that people in this community rely on every single day."
Bailey is also urging leaders to confront what she called extremist rhetoric.
"I see how these conversations are too often driven by misinformation and fear instead of facts," Bailey said. "Abortion is safe, abortion is legal and access to reproductive health care remains the law in Ohio, and that is because voters said so. No act of violence will ever change that."
Outside the clinic Tuesday, two abortion opponents who protest nearly every day — Eric Mays and Ruben Rivers — said violence is not the answer.
Mays, a pro-life supporter who has demonstrated outside Mt. Auburn for two years, said the Thursday incident was "overboard."
"When we stand out here, we do it peacefully, and we just try to help people find better alternatives than getting rid of your child ... some days we actually reach one or two people," Mays said.
Rivers has been protesting outside the clinic for 15 years. He said he was devastated when he heard about the fire.
"This needs to stop," Rivers said. "(I stand out here) and try for the babies. I have six kids myself — lost one to the streets in 2015 — but I’m still hanging strong. I want to see babies grow."
The Mt. Auburn clinic is the fourth most visited Planned Parenthood affiliate in the country, according to Whaley, serving thousands of patients each year — nearly half from out of state.
Whaley said the center is the first clinic offering abortion care for over 1,300 miles from Key West, Florida.
Services include abortion care, gender-affirming care, birth control, prenatal care, cancer screenings, STI testing and comprehensive sex education.
Whaley said the organization has increased security at all Southwest Ohio locations, with 24/7 onsite personnel, and remains confident in investigators' ability to track down the suspect.
The site has been the target of violence before.
In 1985, a Northern Kentucky man planted a bomb in the center's basement — then known as the Margaret Sanger Center of Planned Parenthood — and set fire to another women’s clinic nearby. He was arrested years later in Florida and served seven years in prison.
"When we provide care, it is not just to the people of Cincinnati. It is to the people of Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Texas," Whaley said. "And that makes it even more important that our doors remain open, and the people that are providing care know that too."
The Cincinnati Fire Department said the fire is under investigation by multiple agencies.
