A bomb threat against Oregon Health & Science University is the latest in a string of attacks and harassment against health care facilities, spurred by far-right culture war issues and COVID conspiracies.
The threat, called in Thursday, shut down OHSU鈥檚 Richmond Family Health Center throughout the day Friday. According to an email sent to members of the AFSCME union representing OHSU employees, the threat was in response to a story posted on a far-right, anti-trans website alleging a cancer patient had been dropped by the clinic over remarks she made about the LGBTQ+ community.
In the email, union chapter president Michael Stewart said clinic staff and patients evacuated the clinic upon learning of the bomb threat. The Richmond facility is home to a primary care clinic and family medicine walk-in clinic. The clinic is also one of a handful that provide gender-affirming care.
鈥淩ichmond employees have endured countless threats of harm, racial slurs, anti-LGBTQIA+ hate speech and more, with little to no recourse,鈥� Stewart鈥檚 email said. 鈥淎s one person put it, 鈥楻ichmond staff have been sharing that they鈥檙e worried something like this would happen for a long time now, and now their fears and suspicions have been confirmed.鈥欌��
Stewart said the threat came after patient Marlene Barbera became unhappy about a trans flag hanging in the reception area of the Richmond clinic, where she was receiving breast cancer treatment. Multiple far-right media websites shared Barbera鈥檚 statements, in which she alleged 鈥済ender to be a nonsense and sexed bodies to be a reality.鈥� She said the 鈥渢ransgenderism banner鈥� was hanging like a 鈥淣azi flag behind the reception desk.鈥�
Barbera also alleged she had conflicts with staff in the clinic office and suggested she had offended a trans employee.
According to a letter Barbera said OHSU sent her, the hospital dropped her as a patient 鈥渂ecause of ongoing disrespectful and hurtful remarks about our LGBTQ community and staff.鈥�
OHSU spokesperson Nicole Rideout said the hospital is legally prohibited from confirming whether or not someone is a patient. Regarding the alleged conflict that took place between Barbera and hospital staff, Rideout pointed to general hospital policies that say: 鈥淥HSU patients, families and visitors have a responsibility to refrain from using discriminatory, profane, derogatory or threatening language, imagery or behavior, and understand that these behaviors can result in limitation of visiting privileges and impact access to care at OHSU.鈥�
She said those policies are based on regulatory requirements.
The social media account Libs of TikTok, which has millions of followers and is known for posting anti-LGBTQ+ content, posted about Barbera鈥檚 account the day before the bomb threat. As of Saturday morning, a tweet sent by the account had 4.3 million views and nearly 11,000 retweets. The account, , has a history of directing harassment and threats toward children鈥檚 hospitals that provide care to transgender youths and teenagers.
In a March 2022 tweet, Raichik of OHSU Doernbecher Children鈥檚 Hospital鈥檚 gender-affirming care. In August 2022, staff at Boston Children鈥檚 hospital received death threats, and the hospital after Raichik tweeted over a dozen false claims the hospital was performing hysterectomies on children. Children鈥檚 National in Washington, D.C., received a barrage of threatening emails and phone calls after Raichik made similarly false accusations about the hospital.
Conservative figures who drive their followings through social media have increasingly targeted health care settings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
St. Luke鈥檚 Regional Health in Idaho successfully sued Ammon Bundy, the far-right figure who led the 2016 Malheur National Wildlife Refuge takeover,. The defamation lawsuit alleged Bundy and Diego Rodriguez, the grandfather of an infant removed from the family鈥檚 custody over concerns for the child鈥檚 health, used Bundy鈥檚 People鈥檚 Rights network to rally protesters to the hospital and the homes of child protection services employees.
In his email, union president Stewart told his members the attack on OHSU was a direct threat to their trans colleagues and said the union is urging hospital leadership to provide accurate updates about this situation, increase safety protocols and offer employees mental health support.
Rideout said additional security measures have been put in place at Richmond and that OHSU offers wellness resources to its staff.
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