An abortion facility director has been accused of misleading police after telling authorities that she had found a bomb at her facility, according to federal court papers.
Linda Meek, 63, whose is no longer employed by Reproductive Services of Tulsa, will face a federal lawsuit for intentionally giving “false and misleading information” resulting in a bomb scare at the facility on August 13. Reports did not specify the circumstances behind the end of Meek’s employment at the abortion mill.
The police report said that an unnamed employee had reported seeing a box she did not recognize as facility waste in a trashcan. After the building was evacuated, Tulsa Police Department bomb technician examined the package, and discovered no explosive device.
Tulsa Police Officer Leland Ashley told the Tulsa World that reports that the employee claimed to hear a ticking sound coming from the package were unconfirmed.
The facility had been the site of an actual bombing and other attacks in 1997.
Neither Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Fries nor Meek’s attorney, Allen Smallwood, would tell the World what Meek’s suspected motivation was in initiating the false bomb scare.
Meek is being charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and according to officials could face as many as five years in prison if found guilty. She is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.
Pro-life Republican state Representative and family practice physician Mike Ritze told the Associated Press (AP) that the bomb scare was part of a growing trend among abortion activists to paint opponents as dangerous.
“Either she did it maliciously to harm the opposition or is trying to draw attention away from the abortion industry,” said Ritze.
Tony Lauinger, chairman of Oklahomans for Life and vice president of the National Right to Life Committee, also told the AP that “there was an apparent rush to judgment” that pro-lifers were to blame for the incident. “We are opposed to violence. We’re opposed to the violence that occurs on a daily basis inside abortion facilities. We are likewise opposed to any violence being directed toward those facilities,” he said.
Planned Parenthood of Oklahoma City declined to discuss the incident but told the news service that, in the AP’s words, it wasn’t the “policy” of pro-abort activists to portray pro-lifers as dangerous.