On Tuesday, a federal court found seven pro-life advocates guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinics (FACE) Act. Among the seven included an 89-year-old woman, Eva Edl, who’s a survivor of a communist prison camp in Eastern Europe. These civilians could face over 10 years in prison for peacefully protesting in front of an abortion facility.
As The Daily Wire reported, “The seven were prosecuted by the Biden administration, which has been using the conspiracy against rights charge, originally designed for the Klu Klux Klan.” In addition to the lengthy jail time, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Cal Zastrow, Eva Zastrow, and Edl may face “hundreds of thousands in fines upon sentencing” — a date that has not been established.
During the trial, which included “seven full days of arguments packed with tension and drama,” Edl reportedly stated, “We need suffering in our lives in order to be purified and not feel sorry about ourselves.”
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As Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Education Studies, contended during Wednesday’s “Washington Watch,” the incident is the latest example of a recurring pattern of the Biden-Harris administration targeting the free speech rights of pro-life advocates. “This case is one of many from this Department of Justice … that continues to prosecute people for expressing their First Amendment rights to free speech for objecting to … the taking of innocent life, unborn life.” Kilgannon went on to highlight how these pro-lifers are “facing serious jail time and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines … simply [for] protesting and seeking to protect the rights of the unborn to be born.”
Regarding the court’s claim that the group violated the FACE Act, Kilgannon noted that, at least in part, “The FACE Act is about being able to access the abortion facility to have an abortion.” As such, “the pro-abortion folks do not like the fact that there are pro-life people outside the clinics praying.” They’re also opposed to “the sidewalk counselors [that] will seek to help minister to” women considering abortion. Proponents of life, Kilgannon pointed out, want “to help them, to give them free pregnancy tests, to give them free ultrasounds, to provide health care for them at no cost, so that they have an alternative to abortion.”
And really, she continued, “There are many women who are interested in alternatives to an abortion, but they will not get information about that from an abortion clinic when they go into it.” It’s “people like Senator Elizabeth Warren and Vice President Harris who have extreme contempt for this kind of activity because they want women … to go into the abortion facility unquestioned, unmolested, so that they can have the procedure done.”
Guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice further observed that in addition to prohibiting people from completely blocking access to abortion facilities, “the FACE act is also intended to protect … pregnancy resource centers” in the same way. And while Kilgannon agreed, she emphasized that “it’s [not] enforced that way.” Data highlighted by Rep. Chip Roy’s (R-Texas) office revealed that “97% of FACE Act prosecutions since 1994 have been against pro-lifers.” As The Washington Stand reported, “[O]ut of 211 cases, only six were used to prosecute pro-abortionists.”
“[W]e hear all kinds of stories about pregnancy resource centers that are defaced, threatened, attacked … and for some reason, the people who perpetrate those crimes are not brought to justice, and certainly not under the FACE Act by the federal government,” Kilgannon lamented. Yet at the same time, “this Department of Justice has plenty of time to go after 89-year-old communist concentration camp survivors who are pro-life.”
“It’s just stunning,” Hice remarked, especially when considering “the FACE Act is intended for both.” However, he concluded, while “those who destroy, deface, threaten … pregnancy resource centers” remain free, “people who are praying outside of an abortion clinic” are criminally prosecuted. It “is unbelievable,” he concluded.
