The man who died after authorities say he bombed a Palm Springs, California, fertility clinic on Saturday was linked to antinatalism—the belief that all life is a form of suffering imposed on people without their consent—according to terrorism experts who have been analyzing his online presence.
Authorities say Guy Bartkus, who was 25, set off an explosion in a car outside American Reproductive Centers, injuring five people and killing himself as well as causing extensive damage to the building in an act of terrorism.
“The subject had nihilistic ideations, and this was a targeted attack,” said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, in a press conference. Bartkus was attempting to livestream the attack, Davis added. All embryos in the facility were saved.
Since the attack, Bartkus’ digital footprint has surfaced, including writings and recordings of his views. According to the LAist, Bartkus appeared to describe himself as being promortalist and misandrist on a website that surfaced after the bombing and could be heard in an audio recording saying, “Basically I’m anti-life. And IVF is like kind of the epitome of pro-life ideology.” He did not use his name on the site, but analysts from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) believe the website was operated by him. WIRED has viewed an archived version of the website.
Reddit has also banned the antinatalist subreddit r/Efilism, telling NBC News it was removing “any instances of the suspect’s manifesto or recordings and hashing to prevent reupload.” Efilism, a form of antinatalism also linked to promortalism, gets its name by spelling “life” backward.
Nihilists believe that life is meaningless. While promortalists and antinatalists also don’t value human life, Katherine Keneally, US director of threat analysis and prevention for the ISD, says Bartkus’ views were somewhat distinct from nihilism because of his belief he was on a mission.
“Promortalists recognize and seek to minimize suffering rather than embrace misanthropy and amorality,” Keneally says, noting that the writings attributed to Bartkus indicate he rejected the “sociopath[ic] tendencies of nihilists” in a May 2025 forum post. Keneally says part of minimizing suffering, in the eyes of an antinatalist, is reducing the human population.
In a recording of the aforementioned website, Bartkus reportedly said, “ I am angry that I exist, um, and that, uh, you know, nobody got my consent to bring me here.”
Keneally says the suspect’s statements and social media posts indicate the bombing was motivated by promortalism, as he may have thought targeting a fertility clinic was preventing new life. ISD analysts don’t believe promortalism has been a primary motivator of violence in previous cases it’s been linked to, she adds.
The bombing comes over a week after ISD released a report about how nihilistic worldviews are fueling violence in the US and Europe. The report found that two prominent nihilistic subcultures, True Crime Community and No Lives Matter, were linked by authorities to nine school shooting plots and two Swedish stabbing attacks in 2024.
