FBI ID’s ‘Pro-Mortalist’ Suspect Shredded In Bombing Of Palm Springs Fertility Clinic

The FBI has identified the suspect in Saturday’s powerful car-bombing of a Palm Springs fertility clinic as 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus, a man who held an odd set of beliefs about humanity and other sentient life forms. Officials say Bartkus was fatally torn to shreds, and classified his attack as an act of terrorism.

While investigators are still working to fully confirm it was the work of Bartkus, they believe he foreshadowed his attack in a manifesto he posted to the internet, along with a 30-minute audio recording. Bartkus was an adherent to a strange philosophy called “pro-mortalism,” which encourages the extinction of humanity and other sentient beings to preclude the suffering associated with life. Hand in hand with that belief goes Bartkus’ embrace of “anti-natalism,” which argues that nobody should have children — a belief that bears directly on his targeting of a fertility clinic.  

In the half-hour-long audio file saved under the title “pre,” the calmly-speaking and occasionally-chuckling narrator believed to be Bartkus says: 

“Ooookay, I figured I would just make a recording explaining why I’ve decided to bomb an [in vitro fertilization] building or clinic. Basically, it just comes down to I’m angry that I exist and that, you know, nobody got my consent to bring me here. And I know what you’re going to say: ‘How could we have gotten your consent, because you didn’t exist, blah, blah, blah.’ Exactly the point. There’s no way you can get consent to bring someone here, so don’t fucking do it.”         …   

“Obviously, I’m very against [IVF]. It’s extremely wrong. I mean, these are people who are having kids after they’ve sat there and thought about it. How much more stupid can it get?...I guess you can make the argument ‘well at least they’re thinking about it’…Yeah, that is something I guess, but at the same time, again, you still can’t get the [infant’s] goddam consent, you’re not getting around that argument…basically, I’m anti-life. And IVF is kind of the epitome of pro-life ideology, so fuck IVF, fuck IVF clinics, and fuck the people that work for them, quite frankly.”

BOMBING: This is an audio recording of Guy Edward Bartkus’ manifesto. Bartkus was the Palm Springs Fertility Clinic Bomber. pic.twitter.com/WNtDgYGHVo

— @amuse (@amuse) May 18, 2025

The audio recording also likens giving birth to raping an unconscious woman, as neither the woman nor the unborn child is capable of granting consent. The speaker says he has some reluctance about the term “pro-mortalism,” because some might misinterpret it as being sadistically “pro-dying;” he emphasizes that it means he’s “pro-non-existence.” The narrator argues that “parents are the real killers” because “they’re the ones making you exist in the first place, which then guarantees a death.” He says pro-mortalists encourage that guaranteed death to happen sooner than later so the individual “experience[s] less of life’s bullshit.”  

The manifesto referred to the homicide of his best friend, someone identified as “Sophie.” It seems Sophie shared Bartkus’ beliefs: Investigators say she convinced her boyfriend to shoot her in the head as she slept. He was charged with second-degree murder.  “We had agreed… if one of us died, the other would probably follow,” the manifesto read. 

In its initial report on the bombing, the New York Times used four paragraphs to allude to the possibility that the bombing was the work of conservatives, noting that “many Christian conservatives who oppose abortion also oppose I.V.F. because they do not support the loss of embryos, which they consider people.” Bartkus clearly didn’t match the Times’ roundabout suggestion. However, social media users trying to tether Bartkus to the “extreme left” seem almost as baseless. Indeed, there’s no indication yet of Bartkus being aligned with any mainstream political movements or candidates.

He was dismembered when a powerful bomb in his silver 2010 Ford Fusion exploded around 11am local time Saturday — when the American Reproductive Centers clinic was closed; four bystanders suffered minor injuries and none are hospitalized. While the clinic suffered major damage to its offices and patient-consultation spaces, the IVF lab and its stored embryos went unscathed. Investigators say Bartkus intended to livestream the explosion, going so far as to set up a tripod and camera. However, the video never uploaded to the web. 

Bartkus, who lived about 60 miles away in Twentynine Palms, had been coping with depression and some sort of personal relationship struggles, according to law enforcement sources that spoke to NBC News. It’s not yet been reported if, like so many other mentally-troubled people who lash out violently, Bartkus was taking SSRI antidepressant drugs. Neighbors told the Los Angeles Times they hadn’t seen anyone in his residence for months. “It’s a bit unsettling to know our neighbor was doing something so evil,” said Jeanette Hogan, who lives directly across the street. 

The suspect’s 75-year-old father, Richard Bartkus, told KTLA 5 News that he hadn’t seen his son in 11 years. He described him as having been a “smart, good kid” who’d set fire to the family home as he played with matches at an unspecified age. “After he had burned the house down, he started changing a little bit, he’d light fires,” his father said, choking back tears. “I was too strict for him, so he wanted to stay with Mom until the divorce came through. Mom was lenient.” He said his son was fascinated by making model rockets and smoke bombs — a fascination he apparently put to work in building a powerful bomb used against the fertility clinic.