Former Kalispell abortion provider Susan Cahill is suing the man convicted of destroying her health-care clinic as well as the man’s parents, Hope Pregnancy Ministries and the ministry’s executive director.

Last year Zachary Klundt was given a five-year prison sentence and ordered to pay $669,000 in restitution for destroying Cahill’s All Families Healthcare clinic in the early hours of March 4, 2014.

The clinic was the only facility in the area to provide first-trimester abortions. Cahill had 38 years of experience in the valley as a physician’s assistant. She closed her business following the break-in.

A civil lawsuit filed recently in Flathead District Court by Cahill and her husband, Steve Martinez, names Zachary Klundt as one of the defendants, along with Kenny Klundt and Twyla Klundt, Zachary’s parents; Hope Pregnancy Ministries of Kalispell, and Hope Pregnancy Executive Director Michelle Reimer.

Cahill claims that as a result of destruction caused by Zachary Klundt, she was forced to retire from her practice, “causing loss of income, untimely withdrawals from retirement and benefits accounts and early Social Security.”

She alleges she was unable to sell her business to likely successors because her health-care equipment and materials were destroyed by Zachary Klundt.

Cahill is demanding a jury trial. She also is asking the court for compensation to cover the damages she incurred for the loss and prospective loss of property value, economic opportunities and other legal rights, and for emotional distress. Cahill further wants exemplary and punitive damages for the defendants’ “malicious” actions.

During his sentencing in June 2015, Zachary Klundt addressed the controversy surrounding the motive that led him to break into All Families, which offered abortions as part of its service. He said any speculation that based the crime on a pro-life belief was “conspiracy” and asked that the larger Christian community be removed from the microscope.

“Please leave them alone because I am the guilty one,” Klundt told District Judge Ted Lympus.

Klundt claimed he destroyed the clinic in an intoxicated search for prescription drugs. His attorney told the court about Klundt’s addiction to pills and alcohol as well as his mental illness.

Klundt has appealed his case to the Montana Supreme Court.

Cahill’s lawsuit points out that Reimer purchased a building at 1060 N. Meridian Road in December 2013 and subsequently evicted Cahill and her clinic.

Cahill then relocated her medical office to 505 First Ave. E. in Kalispell; it was that office space Zachary Klundt vandalized less than a month after Cahill opened the clinic in the new location.

In a press release issued Sunday, Cahill alleges a director at Hope Pregnancy Ministries told Democracy Now!, a progressive nonprofit syndicated news show, that Reimer admitted purchasing Cahill’s old clinic to “advance the cause of life.”

Reimer is out of the country on a mission trip and was unavailable to comment on the lawsuit.

Hope Pregnancy Ministries board chairwoman Joanna Wirth issued a statement Monday saying the vandalism of All Families Healthcare “was deplorable and regrettable, but it has nothing to do with Hope Pregnancy Ministries.

“We are currently in the litigation process, and will continue to defend our organization against any claim that our organization was responsible for this vandalism,” Wirth said. “Hope Pregnancy Ministries has, for the past 17 years, provided compassionate care to thousands of men and women in this community, and will continue to do so regardless of baseless allegations intended to malign an organization which has always been above reproach.”

Hope Pregnancy Ministries has been operating in the Flathead Valley since 1999 as a pro-life resource center. It operates Clear Choice Clinic, a medical clinic offering pregnancy diagnosis, nursing consultations and free and low-cost testing and treatment under a licensed physician’s care.

Cahill stated in her press release that the civil suit is a “courageous attempt to speak truth to power and let the extremists know that they cannot get away with terrorizing the life and livelihood of medical professionals who perform a legal procedure that saves women’s lives.”

The 2014 vandalism wasn’t the first time Cahill has been the victim of violence directed against a pro-choice clinic. She began her work under Dr. James Armstrong, one of the first doctors to provide abortions in the valley.

In 1994, Armstrong’s clinic was firebombed by a Washington man who had attacked several other facilities.

The following year the Montana Legislature passed a law restricting the performance of abortions to licensed physicians. At the time Cahill was the only physician’s assistant performing abortions in Montana. The state Supreme Court later upheld Cahill’s constitutional right to provide abortions.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.