An anti-abortion activist from Davenport is accused of attacking a worker at an Iowa City abortion clinic. 32-year-old William Owens-Holst faces charges including assault and burglary after the Monday incident outside the Emma Goldman Clinic.
Police say Owens-Holst grabbed the woman around the neck, shoved her against a car and broke her cell phone. The unidentified woman wasn’t seriously hurt. Karen Kubby, executive director of the clinic, says they are constantly on guard for this sort of attack.
Kubby says “I came upon the scene when he was throwing his body against the front door trying to break in. I tried to intervene to ask if he was okay because it was obvious he was distraught and he continued to try to enter the clinic through the front door by throwing his body against it and breaking the door.” He allegedly broke a window to get inside.
Police say Owens-Holst told officers he broke in so he could, “break the fingers of the abortion doctors so they couldn’t kill babies.”