Six pro-life advocates were convicted Tuesday by President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice for peacefully protesting in 2021 at an abortion facility in Tennessee. Each of the pro-life advocates faces up to 10 and a half years in prison after being found guilty of a Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) offense and a felony conspiracy against rights.
According to a Justice Department press release, each of the six pro-life supporters was found guilty of “a conspiracy to prevent the clinic employees from providing, and patients from receiving, reproductive health services, a civil right secured by the FACE Act.”
The Daily Wire reported that the incident took place on March 5, 2021, when a group of pro-life advocates gathered outside the Carafem Health Center Clinic in a hallway on the second floor of an office building. Video footage of the peaceful protest shows the pro-life group praying, singing, and encouraging women not to receive abortion services.
The six defendants in Tuesday’s conviction verdict by Judge Aleta Trauger included Chet Gallagher of Tennessee, Coleman Boyd of Mississippi, Paul Vaughn of Tennessee, Heather Idoni of Michigan, Dennis Green of Virginia, and Cal Zastrow of Michigan. The Justice Department announced that the six pro-life advocates will be sentenced in July.
“We are, of course, disappointed with the outcome,” Steve Crampton, Vaughn’s attorney, said in a statement following Tuesday’s verdict. “This was a peaceful demonstration by entirely peaceable citizens—filled with prayer, hymn-singing, and worship—oriented toward persuading expecting mothers not to abort their babies.”
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Crampton added, “The Biden Department of Justice’s pattern of arresting and prosecuting peaceful pro-life advocates is disturbing.”
According to the Justice Department, each of the pro-life advocates currently faces up to 10 and a half years in prison, fines as high as $260,000, and three years of supervised release.
“These defendants are being held accountable for unlawfully obstructing access to reproductive health services,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said. “The Justice Department will continue to enforce the FACE Act to protect the rights of those who provide and those who seek access to such services.”
