When a 25-year-old detonated a car bomb and himself outside a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, on Saturday, the local interim federal prosecutor, a Donald Trump appointee, was quick to accuse the bomber of harboring “anti pro-life” sentiment.

Well, in a sense, yes. But if the suggestion was that bomber Guy Edward Bartkus was primarily motivated by abortion rights, the accusation missed the point.

Barkus might be more accurately described not so much as anti-pro-life, but rather plain, old anti-life.

Bartkus, it turned out, subscribed to a fringe philosophy, circulating primarily among a small group of online adherents, that opposes human life in every form.

Dubbed efilism — for “life” spelled backwards — or anti-natalism, supporters of the philosophy argue that people should avoid having children because human existence is too miserable to justify.

Bartkus appears to have taken the ideology a step further than most subscribers in dying by a suicide accompanied by a spectacular act of violence.

By his own account, Bartkus also suffered from mental health problems.

The Saturday bombing outside the reproductive health clinic left Bartkus dead and four other people injured, according to authorities. None of the clinic’s embryos were damaged since they are stored off-site, the clinic’s director said.

The American Reproductive Centers clinic offers services such as in vitro fertilization, egg freezing, and egg donation,

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