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A history of attacks on Planned Parenthood

Police stand guard near a Planned Parenthood clinic Friday, Nov. 27, 2015, in Colorado Springs, Colo. A gunman opened fire at the clinic on Friday, authorities said, wounding multiple people.
Police stand guard near a Planned Parenthood clinic Friday, Nov. 27, 2015, in Colorado Springs, Colo. A gunman opened fire at the clinic on Friday, authorities said, wounding multiple people. AP Photo/David Zalubowski

An attack at a Colorado Springs, Colo. Planned Parenthood clinic Friday has left one police officer and two others dead and nine people wounded.

READ MORE: 4 officers, civilians injured in shooting near Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado

An alleged lone gunman stormed the clinic while it was open and operating. After an exchange of gunfire the man barricaded himself in the clinic before surrendering to authorities.

WATCH: Colorado Police: 2 civilians and 1 officer dead in Planned Parenthood shooting

Planned Parenthood provides reproductive health services and sex education in the United States and Canada and has partners internationally. Pickets and protests outside Planned Parenthood clinics are not uncommon; there is also a history of attacks, some of them deadly.

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According to the National Abortion Federation, between 1977 and 2012 there were 6,550 violent incidents against abortion providers in the United States and Canada, including homicide, arson and death threats.

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Here are the details of a handful of the incidents targeting Planned Parenthood:

September 2015 — Arson at Pullman, Washington clinic

An early morning fire at a Washington state clinic was ruled arson by authorities. No one was injured in the blaze, according to The Spokesman Reviewbut caused enough damage to keep the clinic closed for at least a month. FBI Special Agent Frank Harrill said the time the incident was investigated by federal agencies “because of the history of domestic terrorists targeting providers offering abortion services.”

READ MORE: Abortions declining in nearly all U.S. states

The clinic does not provide abortion services, but does offers abortion referrals.

October 2012 — Stabbing at Grants Pass, Oregon clinic

A man was stabbed in the abdomen and neck and his daughter suffered cuts to her hand after an altercation outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic in 2012. According to a report from The Oregonian, the woman had words with an anti-abortion protester who pushed her over, and she kicked over the man’s signs. She later returned with her father to confront the man leading to an altercation, which is when the protester pulled the knife, according to police.

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The protester later claimed self-defence in the stabbing.

READ MORE: 4 things to know about an anti-abortion group’s Planned Parenthood videos

March 2012 — Bombing at Grand Chute, Wisconsin clinic

A homemade bomb blast damaged a Planned Parenthood clinic in eastern Wisconsin on a Sunday evening in March, 2012. No one was in the building at the time and the blast caused minimal damage, according to CBS News.

Francis Grady, age 50 at the time, was arrested and charged with two felonies. Grady said he attacked the clinic “Because they’re killing babies.”

July 1996 — Bombing at Spokane Valley, Washington clinic

Four men were convicted of igniting a pipe bombing outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in 1996, along with a subsequent bank robbery. The Planned Parenthood website refers to the bombing as a “diversionary tactic.” The clinic was closed at the time and there were no injuries.

December 1994 — Shooting at Brookline, Massachusetts clinic

A gunmen opened fire at two abortion clinics in a quiet suburban area, killing two staff and wounding five others. One of the clinics was a Planned Parenthood location.

A manhunt followed, and John Salvi, a 23-year-old Rhode Island man was arrested the next day in Norfolk, Va after spraying the lobby of an abortion clinic with bullets. He was found guilty on two counts of murder, despite defence arguments he was schizophrenic.

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He was found dead in his prison cell in 1996 from an apparent suicide.

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