Family of Victim in Clinic Shooting Sues Planned Parenthood

But after a psychological evaluation earlier this month, the court found Dear not competent to stand trial. The charges against him—179 counts, including first-degree murder—are pending until Dear is deemed fit to take the stand. According to reports, the court will review Dear's mental state every 90 days.

In the meantime, the family of Ke'Arre Stewart, a 29-year-old military veteran who died while he was accompanying a friend to the clinic that day, has filed a lawsuit in the Denver District Court directly against Planned Parenthood for his wrongful death. The wife and daughter of Stewart allege that the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic did not have adequate security at the time of the attack. They sued both the national and Rocky Mountain chapters of Planned Parenthood on Friday and are demanding a trial by jury.

The Stewart family and their lawyers claim that because Planned Parenthood "has a long history of violent attacks and threats," the clinic "should have known" that anyone who goes to the women's health provider for services is at risk of injury or death. Therefore, the suit continues, Planned Parenthood is liable for failing to provide written or verbal warnings describing "the risk of physical, harm, injury, or death" associated with entering a Planned Parenthood, among other safety measures like having a physical fence around the property and armed security guards.

Making clinics safer for patients is never a bad idea, though it comes down to how you do it. According to Lori Brown, an architect who literally wrote the book on how to make abortion clinics safer, intensely militarizing them isn't really the answer. She says that security measures vary by clinic and there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to ensuring patient safety. A fence—or menacing signs—isn't necessarily the best practice. For her book, Contested Spaces: Abortion Clinics, Women's Shelters and Hospitals: Politicizing the Female Body, Brown visited numerous independent abortion clinics across the United States, Mexico, and Canada, though she wasn't granted access to any Planned Parenthood clinics.

"I've seen a range of devices, from metal detectors in the foyer that you have to walk through to a wand that they use to pat you down with," Brown told me over the phone. "Those heightened security measures were more precipitated by 9/11 than anything else. But when you speak to providers about how secure these spaces should be, you realize that they're walking a fine line between the clinic looking overtly securitized versus more covert ways that don't make it feel like you're walking into a space that is just screaming 'danger.'"

Indeed, Planned Parenthood clinics are firstly spaces for care. While security should be present, it shouldn't seem like you're risking your life when you're going to fill your birth control prescription. It also shouldn't seem like extreme acts of terrorism are the norm. "Abortion clinics should seem like a regular, medical space," Brown said. "There's an issue of how does it feel versus how does it look. That's a gray area. There have to be mechanisms that feel secure but also doesn't make it feel like you're going into a highly securitized fortress."

The lawsuit claims that the Colorado Springs clinic has an inferior security system to a clinic in Denver, which has wrought iron fences. But Brown says that security measures for clinics are dependent on where they're located. In some cases, Brown said, the FBI has directly told some clinics that they should not install a fence around their perimeter, and that a more open layout is safer. Brown says some newer clinics have bulletproof glass and and others that routinely have protestors use escorts that walk patients safely into the facility. Brown added that in all the clinics she visited, the providers would warn patients over the phone about any protesters outside the clinic.

It's likely that the Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs fell somewhere along that spectrum of preparedness, but those standard safety measures could not stop a man determined to vindicate "the killing of babies." Placing the blame on the clinic itself for the horrific act of violence that Dear committed is like blaming any other victim who sought services at Planned Parenthood that day. Violence against abortion clinics is carried out by domestic terrorists and predicated on the political ideology that abortion is a crime—and that doctors who provide abortions, and the women who get them, are criminals. A fence certainly isn't going to stop women's reproductive rights from being attacked from people like David Daleiden, Robert Lewis Dear, Jr., and state governments across the country.

"The violent attack of November 27, 2015 had a tremendous impact on our staff, our patients and our larger community," said Whitney Phillips, a representative for Planned Parenthood in a statement to Broadly. "Although we cannot comment on ongoing litigation, we believe that our health centers throughout the Rocky Mountains region are both safe and inviting for our patients and our staff who care for them. The safety of our patients, staff, and facilities is, and always has been, a priority for us."

"What happened in Colorado was such an extreme," Brown said. "There's no way anyone could ever imagine that that would have happened. I would imagine that it's not the best practice to tell your patients, 'Oh, by the way, we might have a terrorist attack today.'"

Immediately after the tragic shooting, Vicki Cowart, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, released a statement that assured that the safety of the clinics was a top priority. "Planned Parenthood has strong security measures in place, works closely with law enforcement agencies, and has a very strong safety record," she said.