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Five pro-life activists were found guilty in a federal court in Washington, D.C., Tuesday of felony civil rights conspiracy charges and violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act following an October 2020 “invasion” of a D.C. abortion clinic.
Defendants Lauren Handy, 28, of Alexandria; John Hinshaw, 67, of Levittown, New York; Heather Idoni, 61, of Linden, Michigan; William Goodman, 52, of New York City; and Herb Geraghty, 25, of Pittsburgh were each jailed immediately because of the FACE Act convictions, a Justice Department statement said.
The five were convicted on charges related to what the DOJ called an “invasion” of the Washington Surgi-Clinic reproductive health clinic. Some participants came to the District “from various northeast and midwestern states,” the department said, as part of the conspiracy. The agency said the blockade was also livestreamed on Facebook.
Critics have slammed the clinic as a “late-term abortion facility.”
Ms. Hardy and her co-defendants were part of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), a pro-life group noted for protesting near District abortion facilities. Four remaining defendants — Jonathan Darnel, 40, of Arlington; Paulette Harlow, 73, of Kingston, Massachusetts; Jean Marshall, 72, also of Kingston; and Joan Bell, 74, of Montague, New Jersey — are expected to stand trial on the same charges beginning Sept. 6.
A tenth defendant, Jay Smith, 32, of Freeport, New York, pleaded guilty in March to a felony FACE Act violation related to the same incident, the Justice Department said. Details of his sentence were not immediately available.
“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 Tuesday. “These activists are heroes, and the Department of Justice has acted capriciously and illegitimately.”
Attorney Martin Cannon, a senior counsel at the Thomas More Society and Ms. Handy’s attorney said in a statement that the legal team is “preparing an appeal.”
He blasted the Biden administration DOJ as “intent on prosecuting those who decry abortion and present it as it is.”
The five activists convicted Tuesday face as much as 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $350,000 apiece. U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, appointed to the federal bench in 1997 by then-President Bill Clinton, will schedule sentencing later.
Ms. Rose of Live Action slammed Judge Kollar-Kotelly for suggesting “that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution’s ban on ‘involuntary servitude’ may confer a right to abortion,” which she said compares “the beauty of pregnancy and motherhood with the horror of slavery.”
While pro-life activists decried the verdict online, leading organizations in the pro-abortion camp were silent immediately following the verdict.
A search of accounts of Planned Parenthood, its political action committee and NARAL Pro-Choice America on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as the groups’ web pages, showed no reactions to the convictions.
The Washington Times contacted both NARAL and Planned Parenthood for comment.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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