May 15, 2019

A Woman Who Tried to Set Clinics on Fire Is Now Testifying in Support of 6-Week Abortion Bans

Jennifer McCoy spent two years behind bars in the 1990s.

Alain Pitton / ZUMA

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When a Louisiana House committee met on Wednesday to discuss a bill that would ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, the bill’s sponsor brought a special guest to testify: Jennifer McCoy, who spent two and a half years in prison in the 1990s for conspiracy to commit arson at two Virginia abortion clinics.

What’s more, McCoy had ties to Scott Roeder—who assassinated abortion provider George Tiller in 2009—and repeatedly visited him in jail, according to local reporting from the time.

McCoy claimed during her testimony Wednesday that an abortion clinic in New Orleans falsely told her she was pregnant and scheduled an abortion she didn’t need. She supports the heartbeat bill, she said, because, “If they had been made to show a real-time ultrasound, it would have been a whole lot harder for them to fake the fact that I wasn’t pregnant and tell me that I was.”

McCoy acknowledged her criminal history, saying, “Twenty-three years ago, it is true that I did plead guilty to conspiracy and I did serve two and a half years.” However, she failed to mention that her crimes specifically targeted abortion clinics.

The Louisiana House Health and Welfare Committee unanimously backed the bill, which was sponsored by Democratic state Sen. John Milkovich. The bill still needs the approval of the Louisiana House and governor in order to pass.

Last week, Georgia passed a similar law banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat has been detected; on Tuesday, Alabama went further by criminalizing abortion procedures altogether.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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