Pro-Life Women in Their 70s Found Guilty of Felony After Protesting at DC Abortion Clinic
Three pro-life advocates, two of them elderly women, have been found guilty in federal court of a felony that could see each of them sentenced to more than a decade in prison and a $350,000 fine.
Convicted by a federal jury Friday for exercising their First Amendment rights were 74-year-old Joan Bell, 73-year-old Jean Marshall, and 41-year-old Jonathan Darnel, all of whom were charged with felony conspiracy against rights and violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, known as the FACE Act.
According to a Department of Justice news release, give additional defendants were convicted in August on the same counts.
The case is part of a larger attack on pro-lifers by the Biden administration.
Biden’s DOJ started targeting pro-life activists almost as soon as Biden took office and last year his administration began making a series of arrests.
At the center of the campaign against the First Amendment rights of pro-lifers is the so-called FACE Act. This horrendously un-American law increased penalties for those who supposedly accost or obstruct women who are trying to enter an abortion mill. And Biden’s Department of Justice has been applying its precepts very loosely in many cases.
Biden’s partisan DOJ maintained that the three activists engaged in a conspiracy to erect a “blockade” of an abortion clinic in Washington D.C.
The DOJ’s news release states, “According to evidence presented at trial, Marshall and Bell were among a group that forcefully entered the clinic and blockaded two clinic doors using their bodies, furniture, chains and ropes. Once the blockade was established, Darnel – who remained outside the clinic – live-streamed their activities on social media.”
Supporters of the three were devastated by the verdicts. Considering the maximum sentence is 11 years each, according to the DOJ news release, it’s possible the women could die in prison for the pro-life cause.
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“Joan Bell’s children were in the audience shaking and crying,” a pro-life activist in attendance at the court named Bernadette Patel told the Catholic News Agency.
Patel also described the actions of the other defendants after the verdict was rendered, including one epic move.
“Joan took off her red shirt to reveal a bright yellow shirt with the words ‘Pro Life’ written on it,” Patel said. “Jonathan Darnel gave a wave before being escorted out.”
“Jean Marshall brought a doctor’s note saying that she was scheduled for a hip replacement but the judge refused to keep her under house arrest and all were taken away. Chris Bell [Joan’s husband] teared up as he went to his car,” Patel said.
These three activists have yet to be sentenced, but they could face stiff penalties.
Late last year, now-former Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted Biden’s administration for treating pro-lifers worse than it treats actual terrorists after pro-life activist Paul Vaughn’s home was subjected to a pre-dawn raid by the FBI in October.
“Keep in mind that Biden voters, who’ve actually killed people, are facing less jail time than these Christian protesters,” Carlson pointed out at the time.
“See how this works? So, a group aligned with Joe Biden firebombs a building — firebombs! — and the FBI does nothing,” Carlson said. “Instead, they send agents with automatic rifles to the home of a 55-year-old man with 11 children because he sang hymns in an abortion clinic.”
Meanwhile, pro-life pregnancy crisis centers have been fire-bombed across the country and neither the FBI nor the DOJ have lifted a finger to find the culprits.
According to Catholic Vote, there have been nearly 90 such incidents since May of 2022 at Christian-led pregnancy crisis centers. The wave of attacks began right after the still-unsolved leak of the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dobbs case that struck down the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
Despite all this, the DOJ and FBI have targeted the cases of protesters who protested peacefully at abortion mills.
The complete lack of action to track down leftists who committed actual violence juxtaposed with the all-out attack on Christians and pro-lifers who peacefully stood singing hymns or otherwise standing up for their principles shows that Joe Biden’s “justice” is predicated on a radical, left-wing political agenda, not the law.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
