Breaking: Shooting at a South Carolina Planned Parenthood

An anti-abortion protester has been detained

An anti-abortion protester in South Carolina has been taken into custody after allegedly shooting someone outside a Columbia Planned Parenthood clinic. Details are still emerging, but here’s what we know so far.

A witness told The State that she saw an altercation between an anti-abortion activist and someone driving their car by the clinic, and that she later saw the protester arrested. Other witnesses—and Abortion, Every Day sources—identified the shooter as Mark Baumgartner, head of a “sidewalk counseling” group called A Moment of Hope.

A clinic volunteer tells AED that Baumgartner is a regular fixture outside of Planned Parenthood—and that he has a history of “aggression with patients,” including reaching into their cars or physically blocking them. She says his volunteers have also “hit people with umbrellas and even Bibles,” and record videos of patients and their license plates. Like many protesters, Baumgartner and his cohort wear neon vests in an attempt to make patients believe that they’re clinic escorts or staff, the volunteer told us.

Anti-abortion activists are already claiming Baumgartner acted in “self-defense.” But video of the incident provided to Abortion, Every Day tells a very different story: It shows someone who appears to be Baumgartner escalating a verbal argument by pepper-spraying the victim. When the victim reacts by running after Baumgartner—attempting to throw a punch in response—Baumgartner and several anti-abortion protesters tackle him to the ground. After the victim stands and tries to swing again, someone shoots him in the leg. The video shows both Baumgartner and another anti-abortion protester holding guns.

You can find an image still of the video at the bottom of this email. (AED is choosing not to publish the video at this time—not until we’ve investigated all possible safety and privacy concerns.)

The Instagram account for A Moment of Hope regularly features Baumgartner filming himself outside of the Planned Parenthood clinic on “abortion days.” In one of those videos, Baumgartner endorses SB 323, the radical legislation that would allow abortion patients to be charged with murder. (Which, in South Carolina, can mean the death penalty.)

Baumgartner spoke more about that desire to punish women in a recent podcast interview. He insisted that despite anti-abortion messaging that says women are coerced into ending their pregnancies, “the vast majority, they’re doing this under their own volition.” His examples of why women are “culpable”? Well, they’re rude to him when he harasses them outside of the clinic:

“Mothers saying they’re glad they killed their baby and they would do it again. And how common it is for the mothers to flip us off as they’re walking in the door, swerving their cars at us as they’re leaving, you know, just showing that no, they’re not all victims, you know.”

The shooting comes as anti-abortion violence is on the rise across the country, emboldened by the Trump administration. Remember: Within days of taking office, Donald Trump pardoned two dozen anti-abortion extremists convicted of violating the FACE Act—the federal law that protects abortion clinics. (The FACE Act was enacted in response to years of extreme violence and obstruction from protesters, including the murder of Dr. David Gunn in 1993.)

Around the same time, Trump’s Justice Department also announced they would cease to prosecute nearly any violations of the FACE Act. Not unless there are “extraordinary circumstances...such as death.” And at the January March for Life, Vice President JD Vance told the crowd that they will “never have the government go after them ever again.”

In effect, the Trump administration has greenlit anti-abortion violence, in one of the most dangerous moments for clinic staff and patients in recent history.

The National Abortion Federation reported that in the first year after Dobbs, abortion providers experienced a 538% increase in people obstructing clinic entrances, a 913% increase in stalking of clinic staff, and a 144% increase in bomb threats.

Between 1993 and 2016, there were 11 murders and 26 attempted murders of abortion providers by anti-abortion extremists. NAF’s annual reports since 2016 revealed a steady increase in threats and physical attacks against providers during the first Trump administration, while the then-president—now serving his second term—repeatedly wielded his platform to liken abortion with murder.

The clinic volunteer we spoke with called today’s shooting “very shocking”—no one had any idea that Baumgartner, or anyone else, was armed. And that raises new concerns: sidewalk counselors are “often carrying little bags” filled with pamphlets of disinformation or so-called “abortion pill reversal” kits, making it dangerously easy to hide a weapon.

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic shared that none of their personnel, patients, or volunteers have been harmed, adding that the organization “has strong security measures in place” and “will continue to work closely with law enforcement agencies as they manage the situation.”

We’re beyond relieved that everyone there is safe, and our thoughts are with the victim—who reports say is being treated at the hospital. In the meantime, please consider supporting Planned Parenthood South Atlantic—who has continued to provide care despite it all.

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CONTENT WARNING: This is a still from a video of the shooting in South Carolina. There is no blood, and it’s not too graphic—but it’s upsetting.

For more on violence against clinics, read our past coverage below:

"God Demands Justice": The GOP's Chilling Plan to Attack Clinics

Minnesota Shooter Had Hit List of Abortion Providers and Advocates