This weekend, a shocking act of domestic terrorism unfolded in Palm Springs, California, when 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus detonated a car bomb outside a fertility clinic, killing himself and injuring four others. The target? The American Reproductive Centers, an IVF facility focused on helping couples conceive. The motive? A deeply disturbing belief that no one should be born.
According to law enforcement sources, Bartkus was a self-proclaimed member of a “pro-mortalist” or “anti-natalist” death cult, a fringe ideological group that views human life as inherently cruel and reproduction as a moral wrong. In a 30-minute, profanity-laced manifesto uploaded online shortly before the attack, Bartkus stated bluntly, “I’m angry I exist” and railed against both IVF and pro-life ideology. His final recorded words framed the bombing as part of a broader “war against pro-lifers.”
BREAKING: FBI links California fertility clinic bombing to anti-natalist ideology, a belief that no one should have children – NBC
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 18, 2025
Bartkus’ ideology is rooted in anti-natalism, the belief that bringing life into the world is inherently unethical due to the suffering life entails. He denounced IVF in particular, calling it “extremely wrong,” and argued that no child consents to being born. His rage was nihilistic, his logic warped. “Basically, I’m anti-life,” he said in his final recording.
On the same site where his manifesto was posted, investigators found transcripts from Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza and a Q&A section outlining the beliefs of Bartkus’ cult. The materials reflected a cocktail of despair, misanthropy, and internet radicalization—a grim mix that tragically ended in violence.
BREAKING NEWS
The FBI is investigating the Palm Springs explosion as an act of terror.
According to @karol, the suspect is Guy Edward Bartkus, 25 of Twentynine Palms, California.
She says he left a rambling message about how he never consented to being born. pic.twitter.com/F2zDansqgZ
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) May 18, 2025
This kind of ideological extremism doesn’t fit the typical media narrative. Bartkus wasn’t a white supremacist, MAGA extremist, or political partisan. He wasn’t motivated by religious zeal or traditional culture wars. Instead, he weaponized a twisted philosophical belief system that rejected life itself.
Because of that, media coverage has been muted—buried under more headline-dominating stories like President Joe Biden’s stage four metastatic prostate cancer diagnosis, a scandal in its own right given growing questions over how long the White House may have known.
The man who died bombing the fertility clinic in Palm Springs, Calif. allegedly did it as an act of war against the pro-life and pro-natalist movement. A manifesto allegedly written by the man was posted online before the bombing.
It has some similarities to the rantings of the… pic.twitter.com/30FaRJdoS0
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) May 18, 2025
But the Palm Springs bombing deserves scrutiny. It wasn’t just an isolated mental health crisis or a “troubled loner.” It was an ideologically motivated act of terrorism, one that targeted a facility aimed at helping people create life—a choice most Americans view as deeply personal and inherently good.
