A 33-year-old man pleaded guilty to threatening two Minneapolis clinics that provide reproductive health services to intimidate people from using those services, the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney's office said Wednesday.
Michael John Harris admitted that in May 2014, he called two health clinics and threatened to kill whoever answered the phone.
In his call to the first clinic, he also threatened to kill the person on the other end by using "his bare hands, and then cut the person's head off with a band saw," according to a statement. During his call to the second clinic, Harris also threatened to fatally shoot the other employees.
He later admitted he wanted to terrorize patients from seeking the reproductive health services.
"Harris's violent threats against clinics that provide reproductive health services constitute a serious attack on an important right guaranteed by law," Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. "The Justice Department will continue to vigorously prosecute those who seek to interfere with access to reproductive health care."
U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger also denounced the threats.
"Our Constitution allows for a healthy debate on important issues of public concern," Luger said in a statement. "Threatening the lives of health care workers is not a legitimate means of voicing dissent. Today's guilty plea serves as an important reminder that our disagreements cannot devolve into violent threats."
Harris faces a maximum penalty of one year in prison for each of the two counts.
