The Biden Department of Justice successfully swayed a jury on Tuesday to convict five pro-life activists for demonstrating at a controversial abortion clinic, which the DOJ argued violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, also known as the FACE Act.
Conservatives quickly expressed outrage over the case, especially since the activists — Lauren Handy, 28, John Hinshaw, 67, Heather Idoni, 61, William Goodman, 52, and Herb Geraghty, 25, — face 11 years behind bars and were thrown in jail to await their sentences. The activists also each face a $350,000 fine.
“From the beginning, this trial has been a sham with a completely biased pro-abortion judge who has made a mockery of our justice system,” Live Action founder Lila Rose said in a statement. “This decision will be appealed, and we demand it be overturned. These activists are heroes, and the Department of Justice has acted capriciously and illegitimately.”
Daily Wire host Michael Knowles said Wednesday on “The Michael Knowles Show” that these five pro-life demonstrators are “political prisoners.”
“The evil apparatchiks in Washington, DC, are imprisoning these five patriots for this simple act of demonstrating against abortion,” Knowles said. “These five pro-life activists demonstrated in defense of babies at an abortion mill, an infanticide factory, and for that they face more than a decade in prison.”
The activists engaged in a sit-in demonstration at the D.C.-based Washington Surgi-Clinic late-term abortion facility in October 2020. According to reporting from CBN, the demonstrators sang songs, prayed, locked arms in front of the facility’s staff entrance, and attached themselves with ropes and chains to block doors inside the building in an effort to “delay the murder of kids,” the activists said.
The FACE Act, a Clinton-era rule, makes it a federal crime to injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone due to their status as an abortion provider.
The Surgi-Clinic is particularly controversial due to recent undercover footage allegedly showing suspect practices by staffers, including making women take Xanax before meeting with an abortionist and giving final consent.
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Moreover, in March 2022, authorities were called to the home of Handy, one of the activists convicted on FACE act charges, to recover the bodies of five premie-size aborted babies. Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) activists told The Daily Wire they intercepted a box of aborted babies that was on its way from Washington Surgi Clinic to Curtis Bay Medical Waste Facility to be incinerated.
Attorneys at Thomas More Society filed an emergency motion Wednesday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asking the Court to reconsider its order detaining Handy while she awaits sentencing. The attorneys maintain Handy and the other activists were peacefully demonstrating, which is a protected right.
“Ms. Handy was there to prevent these horrific live-birth abortions, which does not violate the FACE Act,” said Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Martin Cannon. “However, she has become a victim of the merciless drive by Biden’s Department of Justice to prosecute those who are trying to protect preborn human beings. To add to that injustice, she was incarcerated when the true violence continues to be committed against innocent children.”