Free Republic

Three individuals charged with targeted attacks on pregnancy help organizations in Florida were sentenced in federal court this week. Caleb Freestone was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for conspiring to intimidate employees of pro-life pregnancy help centers. His co-defendants, Amber Smith-Stewart and Annarella Rivera, were sentenced to 30 days in prison and 60 days of home detention. Freestone, along with Smith-Stewart and Rivera, attacked pregnancy help centers in Florida that provide alternatives to abortion, vandalizing them with threatening messages including, “If abortions aren’t safe than niether [sic] are you,” “YOUR TIME IS UP!!,” “WE’RE COMING for...

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Rep. Chip Roy, chairman of the subcommittee on the Constitution and limited government, is calling on FBI Director Christopher Wray to explain discrepancies between his testimony to Congress and Justice Department prosecution data. Wray testified to Congress on July 24 that the FBI has focused more attention on pro-abortion violence against pro-life facilities since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. “Since the Dobbs decision,” he said, “actually, more of our abortion-related violent extremism investigations have focused on violence against pro-life facilities as opposed to the other way around.” Roy, a Texas Republican, reminded Wray in a...

In March 2016, top Planned Parenthood officials in California eagerly emailed one another about an upcoming meeting with the state’s then-attorney general, Kamala Harris. The meeting carried so much import that the Planned Parenthood officials met with Harris’ staff ahead of time “to discuss prep,” emails reviewed by The Daily Signal show. About two weeks later, on April 5, 2016, California Department of Justice authorities raided the home of a pro-life journalist in his late 20s—David Daleiden, the head of the Center for Medical Progress, who had recently published videos allegedly showing Planned Parenthood officials gruesomely describing how they extract...

Another pro-life activist has been sentenced to time in prison for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Sixty-eight-year-old Steven Lefemine of South Carolina was sentenced to 60 days in jail and was fined $1,000 after he was found guilty in March of blocking the entrance of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility on November 15, 2022. He will not be placed on probation. A video played during his trial showed Lefemine refusing to move unless the clinic workers agreed “not to kill babies today.” Though he was originally arrested by local law enforcement, convicted for trespassing by...

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A Catholic organization that tracks attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers and churches is urging the Justice Department to investigate over 400 known attacks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The organization, CatholicVote, requested a meeting to discuss probes of pro-abortion violations of the FACE Act in a letter to Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke that it shared with The Daily Signal. “The [Biden] administration has repeatedly met and coordinated with the abortion industry, but has refused to meet with representatives of the millions of pro-life Americans and concerned Catholic citizens who are...

Joe Biden has put another pro-life American in prison for protesting abortion – this time putting a young mother in federal prison for more than three years for preaching outside an abortion center. Bevelyn Beatty Williams, a 33-year-old mom of a 2-year-old daughter, received a sentence this week of three years and give months in prison. Williams was charged with violating the FACE Act, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Williams faces an additional charge of violating the FACE Act through force, which carries up to 10 years. For the nearly three decades since FACE was...

Pro-lifer Cal Zastrow has been sentenced to six months in prison over his participation in a peaceful protest at a Tennessee abortion facility March 2021. Zastrow was sentenced by Judge Aleta Trauger on Wednesday in federal court in Nashville. Trauger sentenced him to six months in prison and three years of supervised release. She did not impose a fine on him. He must self report to prison by October 1. When given a chance to speak, Zastrow spoke of his Christian faith and how it drove him to advocate for unborn babies. He said he tried to live his life...

Four more pro-life activists who were convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and felony conspiracy charges received their sentencing last week for activism at a Tennessee abortion business. These sentences have thus far been much less harsh than the sentences imposed upon pro-lifers convicted of FACE Act and conspiracy charges for activism at a Washington, D.C., abortion facility. According to The Associated Press (AP), the activists were convicted in January for participating in a 2021 pro-life action at the Carafem abortion business in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Sentences ranged from six months in prison to...

During a June 22 speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition, former President Donald Trump said that if elected to the presidency again, he would pardon the pro-life activists currently serving jail time for a sit-in style protest at an infamous late abortion facility in Washington, D.C. As reported by the Catholic News Agency, during his speech, Trump specifically mentioned one of the activists, 75-year-old Paulette Harlow, who was sentenced to 24 months in prison for conspiracy to violate civil rights and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Harlow had been on house arrest due...

Nine young anti-abortion activists are risking arrest during a sit-in protest in support of nine pro-life inmates, and against the Freedom to Access Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act). More than thirty activists from Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust will assemble on the corner of Pennsylvania and 10th NW, outside of the Department of Justice on Thursday, June 27th at 12 noon. They will call for the pardon and release of the nine anti-abortion political prisoners and the repeal of the FACE Act. Nine youths, representing the nine individuals who were politically targeted by the Biden DOJ, will sit down outside...

Paulette Harlow, age 75, was sentenced in a Washington, D.C. federal court on the afternoon of May 31 in relation to her participation in an October 2020 rescue action at the Washington Surgi-Clinic abortion facility, run by notorious abortionist Cesare Santangelo. Unlike her co-defendants — Lauren Handy, John Hinshaw, William Goodman, Jonathan Darnel, Herb Geraghty, Jean Marshall, Joan Bell, and Heather Idoni — who were immediately incarcerated following their convictions, Harlow has been on house arrest due to ill health following her November 2023 conviction of so-called “conspiracy against rights” and FACE Act violations. In spite of Harlow’s poor health,...

Former and potentially future President Donald Trump was found "guilty" last Thursday on 34 felony counts in a hush money "trial." It's not just Trump they're going after, though with a weaponized and politicized justice system. As we've been covering, President Joe Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ) has been quite eager to prosecute prayerful pro-life activists using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, including an elderly grandfather. Since then, more grandparents have been sentenced, including grandmothers in poor health. Late last month, 59-year-old Heather Idoni was sentenced to 24 years in prison. She's already been incarcerated for...

A final pro-life activist was sentenced on Friday to years in prison for protesting at an abortion clinic infamous for late-term abortions in Washington, DC. Paulette Harlow, 75, was sentenced to 24 months in prison for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and “conspiracy against rights” for the 2020 protest at the Washington Surgi-Clinic, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). She is the ninth and final activist to be sentenced within the past few weeks for the protest. Unlike her co-defendants — who sat in jail for months awaiting sentencing — Harlow has been on...

A group of lawmakers has sent a letter to United States Marshals Service (USMS) Director Ronald Davis and Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters following troubling reports that several jailed pro-lifers are being denied necessary healthcare services while they are serving time in prison. The letter calls attention to the situation of pro-lifers Heather Idoni, 59, and Jean Marshall, 74. Both women have been convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and “conspiracy against rights” for their involvement in blocking access to the abortion business of notorious abortionist Cesare Santangelo in October 2020. Idoni...

CV NEWS FEED // A group of House lawmakers are calling for answers amid reports that two pro-life women were denied “necessary medical care” while in prison awaiting sentencing. House Pro-Life Caucus Co-Chair Chris Smith, R-NJ, authored the letter to the United States Marshals Service (USMS) Director Ronald Davis and Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters. Pro-life advocates Jean Marshall, 74, and Heather Idoni, 59, along with several other advocates, were convicted of violating the controversial Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for blocking access to a notorious late-term abortion clinic in Washington, D.C. On May 15,...

Lawmakers, legal experts, and analysts are decrying the nearly five-year prison sentence levied on a pro-life activist as an example of the weaponization of the federal government against citizens with disfavored political views. On Tuesday, pro-life activist Lauren Handy was sentenced to 57 months in prison for leading a group of other activists in blockading the entrance to a Washington, D.C. abortion facility in October 2020. Handy was prosecuted by the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division along with nine other co-defendants and became the first person ever to be sentenced for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic...

Editor’s note: John Hinshaw is being held in federal custody at the Alexandria Detention Center, Alexandria, Virginia, along with six other pro-life activists for participating in a traditional pro-life rescue of the unborn at a late-term abortion center in Washington, D.C. Hinshaw was just sentenced to 21 months in prison, with credit for 9 months already served, by pro-abortion Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly under charges of violations of the FACE Act and “conspiracy against rights.” WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Since my conviction and imprisonment in August 2023 for the October 2020 pro-life rescue at the late-term abortuary of Cesare Santangelo (see...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Pro-life advocate Will Goodman has been sentenced to 27 months in prison and a $125 fine on Tuesday, in the third of the day’s sentencing hearings for the first batch of pro-lifers convicted last year of blocking access to a late-term abortion facility in the nation’s capital. On August 29, 2023, a D.C. jury found Goodman, Lauren Handy, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, and Rosemary “Herb” Geraghty guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and “conspiracy against rights.” The next month, Joan Andrews Bell, Jonathan Darnel, and Jean Marshall were convicted of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — 74-year-old peaceful pro-life advocate Jean Marshall was sentenced by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to 15 more months in prison on Wednesday and denied a request to serve the rest of her sentence in home confinement due to health issues, including debilitating osteoarthritis in both hips. Marshall is one of several pro-lifers convicted over blocking access to a scandal-plagued late-term abortion facility in the nation’s capital, in a case criticized by pro-life leaders as an egregious example of Biden administration overreach. On August 29, 2023, a D.C. jury found Lauren Handy, Will Goodman, Heather Idoni, Rosemary “Herb” Geraghty,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Joan Andrews Bell was sentenced to 27 months in jail, community service, and a $125 fine on Wednesday, in the second batch of pro-life advocates convicted last year of blocking access to a scandal-plagued late-term abortion facility in the nation’s capital, a case criticized by pro-life leaders as an egregious example of Biden administration overreach. On August 29, 2023, a D.C. jury found Lauren Handy, Will Goodman, Heather Idoni, Rosemary “Herb” Geraghty, and John Hinshaw guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and “conspiracy against rights.” The next month, Bell, Jean...