Ventura County man convicted of threatening 2 Planned Parenthood clinics
A Ventura County man pleaded guilty to making death threats against two Southern California Planned Parenthood clinics, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade last summer, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Nishith Tharaka Vandebona, 34, was convicted Monday in federal court of illegal intimidation after pleading guilty to making at least three different threats, including one at an unrelated advocacy group months before the Supreme Court decision.
Threats and violence against reproductive healthcare facilities have become increasingly common, with the U.S. Department of Justice noting more than two dozen such cases have been prosecuted in the last four years, including a group that tried to physically block entrance to a Washington, D.C., clinic last year and a man who in 2020 and 2021 shot a BB gun at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Pasadena.
On June 24, 2022 — the same day the Supreme Court ruled in the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, overturning the 1973 decision that had previously affirmed the right to abortion — Vandebona admitted he used an anonymous number to make death threats against Planned Parenthood California Central Coast, based in Santa Barbara, according to a press release about his plea agreement.
The following day, Vandebona called Planned Parenthood Los Angeles multiple times, and made threats to a call center specialist, the news release said. According to officials, Vandebona told the clinic he was going to “come in there and kill all of you, including your staff and your security. You got it? You’re overdue for an attack.â€
In a historic reversal, the Supreme Court strikes down a half-century of nationwide abortion rights in the U.S.
Vandebona was taken into federal custody after his plea hearing Monday, and is facing a maximum sentence of up to six years on two federal charges. He was convicted on a misdemeanor count of threatened forcible intimidation of a reproductive health services facility under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and one felony count of transmitting threatening communications, Justice Department officials said.
His sentencing hearing will be Oct. 2.
Vandebona also pleaded guilty to a bomb threat he made in February 2022 to a Ventura-based anti-immigrant organization, Californians for Population Stabilization, the press release said.
Vandebona admitted he used anonymous numbers he acquired online to call the CAPS office, threatening to kill staff and plant a bomb there.
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