Brookline Clinic Shooting: 25 Years Later

BROOKLINE, MA — Twenty five years ago Monday, an anti-abortionist named John Salvi, 22, walked into a Planned Parenthood clinic in town, pulled a modified semiautomatic .22 rifle from a black duffel bag and shot and killed the receptionist and injured several others.

The tragedy shook Brookline and Boston, and prompted several changes on the local and state level when it came to safety near clinics that offered abortion services.

On Dec. 30, 1994, Salvi shot and killed receptionist Shannon Lowney, 25. He then made his way some two miles down the road to Preterm Health Services another clinic on Beacon Street and killed Lee Ann Nichols, 38, who was the receptionist there. He injured five others in the process.

Salvi was arrested the following day in Virginia after he was involved in yet another shooting in an abortion clinic. During his trial, several people testified that Salvi showed signs of schizophrenia, or other mental illness. But the insanity defense at his trial was not successful. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He killed himself shortly after.

In the aftermath of that tragedy, the state created a fixed "buffer zone" requiring protesters to stay at least 18 feet from a clinic in an effort to increase safety and the right to unencumbered reproductive care and access. In 2007, the buffer zone was extended to 35 feet. The law was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014.

The National Abortion Federation counted 78,114 incidents of picketing at clinics in 2017, a figure that "far exceeds any other year since we began tracking these statistics in 1977," according to an NAF press release.

Since 1977, there have been 11 murders, 26 attempted murders, 42 bombings and more than 100 arson directed at abortion provider clinics and staff and patients nationwide, according to the NAF.

Related:

• Boston Globe Columnist Remembers The Tragedy: Quarter Century Indelible Loss
• Patch: Woman Punches Abortion Protester Outside Brookline Women's Clinic

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).