KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It's been almost three years since a Planned Parenthood clinic in Knoxville was intentionally set on fire by a 64-year-old Jefferson City man. The health provider said it hopes to open a new clinic in the summer of 2024 — around three and a half years since the arson.
In the meantime, the community has been able to find services at Planned Parenthood's mobile health unit parked at 6900 Kingston Pike. It is open five days a week, 9:30 a.m. through 3 p.m., operating as a temporary facility while Planned Parenthood rebuilds.
At the clinic, patients are able to find testing and treatment for STIs and can find treatment for UTIs. Pregnant people can find counseling at the mobile clinic, and Planned Parenthood provides pregnancy testing. It also offers gender-affirming care, as well as birth control options and emergency contraception on top of regular wellness exams.
Patients can book appointments online, or by calling 866-711-1717. Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi said patients will need to make an appointment to be seen at a mobile health unit but can make appointments in the parking lot.
The clinic is continuing to operate after two incidents destroyed property and threatened safety — a shooting and an arson.
Authorities said 64-year-old Mark Reno of Jefferson City intentionally set fire to the Knoxville Planned Parenthood Clinic on New Year's Eve 2021. Planned Parenthood said it had spent more than $2 million renovating the building up until that point. All the work went up in flames, and the building was a total loss after the arson.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Reno "engaged in a series of violent acts of property destruction" starting in early 2021 when he shot an "incendiary projectile" from a shotgun into the entrance of the clinic on the 48th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.
He died while in jail custody in August 2022, according to authorities. Authorities said they were investigating his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. capital. He was also under investigation for two shootings at the John J. Duncan Federal Office Building in Office.
Authorities were preparing to charge him for the incidents before he died.
The government filed a civil complaint in the wake of his death to seize the property used in the crimes.
Federal authorities filed the complaint in Knoxville's U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee on Sept. 26, 2022. It was not against Reno, because he is dead. Instead, it names property purported to belong to him feds believe were used to commit terrorism: A 2012 Ford Fusion, a red 2006 GMC Sierra and a Model 795 .22-caliber rifle.
In the complaint, the FBI said Reno "engaged in a series of violent acts of property destruction" in Knoxville starting in early 2021, saying the vehicles were used in the health center and federal office building incidents, and the gun was used in the shooting involving the federal office building.
Since Reno's death, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against precedent and effectively overturned the Roe v. Wade decision. A Tennessee law has since gone into effect that made it a felony to provide abortion treatments. People who provide abortion treatments face losing voting rights, fines or prison time in Tenessee.
The state requires doctors to provide an "affirmative defense" if they give abortion treatments. They would need to prove in court that the care met legal criteria. Narrow criteria were added to the state's anti-abortion law in 2023, allowing care for "ectopic or molar pregnancy."
The law specifically did not try to punish women who receive abortion treatments and instead punished providers if they did not prove in court that abortion care was necessary.
A lawsuit was filed in September by three patients and two doctors asking judges to declare physicians in the state can perform abortion treatments if a pregnancy risks a patient's health. In it, they said abortion bans can threaten the lives of pregnant people.
"Pregnant people in Tennessee have suffered needless physical and emotional pain and harm, including loss of their fertility. These pregnant people are not imagined. They are not ideological talking points. They are real people, many with children who depend upon them. Three of them are Plaintiffs in this action," the lawsuit said.