A pro-life activist is appealing a three-year prison sentence for blocking entrance to an abortion clinic.
Christian Post reports Bevelyn Beatty Williams, who was found guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for blocking access to an abortion clinic in 2020, plans on appealing her sentence of 41 months in prison.
Williams opened a GiveSendGo fundraiser to cover the legal costs. She called her three-year sentence devastating, saying that, “Not only is this bond extensive for the accused crime, but [Judge Jennifer Rochan] made it very clear in the courtroom that she was going to [make an] example out of me. The concern of being a young mother, and a stay-at-home mother, was completely disregarded.”
Williams expressed concern over the length of the ruling as it would separate her from her toddler-aged daughter. The judge had told her before the sentence “that I was young and that I would not be defined by my sentence, before making a conscious decision to take me away from my two-year-old daughter for three years.”
Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which condemned the young activist, said that Bevelyn Williams “repeatedly intimidated and interfered with individuals seeking and providing critical reproductive health services. She did so by physically blocking access to clinics, threatening staff, and by force.”
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Bevelyn Williams was specifically accused of blocking entrance to the clinic and preventing a volunteer from entering. As she blocked the door, according to the court, a staff member tried to open for the volunteer, and Williams leaned against the door, hurting the staff member’s hand.
Williams had a traumatic past before she started her ministry, and she was abused at a young age, dropped out of high school at 15, used drugs, had two abortions, and was arrested for money laundering in an attempt to pay her rent. In prison, she met a woman who inspired her to change her life and surrender her life to the Lord. Soon after Williams started living her life as a Christian and eventually felt called to start a ministry.
Williams’ ministry, At the Well, provides spiritual formation for Christians and physical aid for the needy. Their mission statement is “to evangelize/minister wherever God leads to tell people about the love of Jesus Christ.” Some of their mandates include to “Boldly and unapologetically preach the gospel on the streets and public square,” to “Speak up, stand for Life and demand that abortion be abolished,” and to “Demand righteousness & justice through cultural & spiritual agitation.”
LifeNews Note: Grace Porto writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
