LOS ANGELES — 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.
