Bomb Explodes Just Before Clinic Opens Abortion Clinic Is Near Manhunt For Rudolph

A bomb exploded just outside western North Carolina’s only abortion clinic Saturday morning.

The explosion, next to the waiting-room wall of the Femcare Clinic in Asheville, caused no injuries and little damage. The bomb was a “fairly large” device that only partially detonated, according to Asheville Police Chief Will Annarino. Federal and state bomb experts safely neutralized the rest of it.

Saturday evening, an additional detonating component of the bomb was found at the scene and neutralized, authorities said.

Joanne Morley, a spokeswoman for the FBI, said agents couldn’t rule out a connection to the case of serial bombing suspect Eric Rudolph.

“We’re not ruling out any possibilities, but it’s too soon to tell,” Morley said. “At this stage, we don’t discount anything.”

Rudolph, the subject of an intensive federal manhunt, is believed to have been hiding out in the mountains of western North Carolina for more than a year. He’s wanted in the Jan. 29, 1998, bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic, as well as the 1996 Olympic Park bombing and two other Atlanta bombings.

Morley said FBI officials believe the Asheville clinic is owned by the same group that owns the Birmingham clinic. Officials wouldn’t say if the bomb that exploded Saturday had nails, like the ones Rudolph is suspected of having used.

Agents with the Southeast Bomb Task Force, which is leading the Rudolph search, and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were called in to investigate.

The last similar incident in North Carolina was last October, when bombs were left outside two Cumberland County women’s clinics. They never exploded. No arrests have been made, according to Fayetteville police.

President Clinton said he was deeply disturbed to learn about the Asheville clinic bombing and condemned the act.

“But whether or not a terrorist’s bomb achieves its deadly purpose, such cowardly and criminal acts strike at the heart of the constitutional freedoms and individual liberties all Americans hold dear,” Clinton said in a statement from Little Rock, Ark. “… I am confident that the perpetrators of this terrible act will be brought to justice.”

Gena Arthur, a spokeswoman for Gov. Jim Hunt, said: “We are most grateful that no one was injured in this incident. The governor is confident that the SBI and the FBI will bring those involved in this incident to justice.”

The Femcare clinic is a frequent target of anti-abortion protests. It was one of 31 clinics nationwide last month that received packages said to contain the potentially deadly bacterium anthrax. Nothing dangerous was found inside the packages sent to the clinics. The clinic has also received anti-abortion letters tinged with religious messages, Morley said.

There had never before been any violence at the clinic. “This has been an area of nonviolent protests for a number of years,” Annarino said.

No one was in the clinic, which was scheduled to open at 8 a.m.

“It appeared to be a very large device,” Annarino said of the bomb. “I really can’t get into how large it is right now. But it appears it could have caused a lot of damage.”

The clinic received no threats before the explosion, according to the FBI.

“There was no warning,” said FBI spokeswoman Morley.