* August of last year…
A Chillicothe man was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison for the January firebombing of the Peoria Planned Parenthood clinic.
Tyler Massengill, 32, appeared in federal court wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. He pleaded guilty in February to the arson. […]
[Federal prosecutor Ron Hanna] also cited Massengill’s lengthy criminal record, noting he’d been arrested more than 30 times since he was a teenager, and had left residential treatment for substance abuse four times — three of those against medical advice. He has six felony convictions and 10 misdemeanor convictions on his record.
Court documents say Massengill believed a Peoria-area woman he had dated three years ago had gotten an abortion while he was away working at a remote Alaskan gold mine. The woman told investigators she had never gotten an abortion.
* Today…
Planned Parenthood of Illinois is bringing procedural abortions to its recently reopened Peoria clinic, marking the first time in five years they have been performed locally.
The Peoria clinic, 2709 N. Knoxville, closed for over a year after it was firebombed in January 2023. The facility reopened in June.
“When we renovated Peoria after it was attacked, we purposefully designed it with flexibility in mind so we can expand our care options as needed,” said Dr. Amy Whitaker, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of Illinois in a statement. “Since PPIL continues to see a flood of patients needing care in central Illinois we are proud to now offer the full spectrum of abortion care in Peoria.”
Planned Parenthood projects restoring procedural abortion in Peoria will expand access statewide by 11%.
The Planned Parenthood clinic has offered medication abortions, but procedural abortions were last available before the Whole Women’s Health clinic, 7405 N. University, closed back in 2019.
