The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that four more pro-life activists have been found guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, including one Holocaust survivor. According to a press release from the DOJ, “The defendants face up to a maximum of six months in prison, five years of supervised release, and fines of up to $10,000.”
Eva Edl (a Holocaust survivor), Eva Zastrow, James Zastrow, and Paul Place were all convicted in a bench trial, with charges relating to a protest outside of a Carafem abortion facility in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Video of the protest shows pro-lifers sitting on the ground, peacefully singing hymns.
Six individuals involved in that protest were already convicted in January. One of them was Chester (Chet) Gallagher who, according to pro-life activist AJ Hurley, was hunted down by the FBI afterwards, despite the non-violent nature of the protest. Hurley said the FBI stormed Gallagher’s home with guns drawn, and when they realized he wasn’t there, they interrogated his neighbors to try to learn his whereabouts.
“The FBI isn’t even performing the investigations. The DOJ is doing their own investigations and using the FBI as their arm of that organization… Normally the FBI does an investigation, and if they find someone guilty of federal crimes, they issue warrants. The DOJ is… sending local branches of the FBI with arrest warrants to be their strong arm,” Hurley previously told Live Action News, adding, “This is a new tactic the DOJ has been throwing at pro-lifers to see if the charges stick.”
READ: Nashville FACE Act trial against six pro-lifers begins
According to the DOJ release, none of the activists involved in this protest behaved violently or aggressively. “The defendants and others filled the interior hallway to the clinic,” the press release said. “These defendants positioned themselves directly in front of the main clinic door for over two hours, physically blocking access to the clinic, resulting in no patients accessing the clinic. Police requested that the defendants leave or move multiple times, but after more than two hours, these defendants were arrested.”
Though the Biden DOJ has aggressively weaponized the FACE Act against the pro-life movement, according to the Thomas More Society‘s Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation, Peter Breen, “The FACE Act was never intended to cover disputes between advocates on the public sidewalks outside of our nation’s abortion clinics. This new evidence shows clearly that Congress intended to limit the FACE Act to patients and staff working in the clinic, and not to take sides between pro-life and pro-choice counselors and escorts on the sidewalk. The Biden Department of Justice’s prosecution… [is] meant solely to intimidate our nation’s pro-life sidewalk counselors who provide vital resources to help pregnant women at risk for abortion.”
