Three abortion activists sentenced to prison for attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers

Three abortion-rights activists were sentenced to prison Thursday for vandalizing pro-life pregnancy centers in Florida, the first pro-choice culprits to receive jail time after more than 90 attacks on anti-abortion facilities since the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Caleb Freestone was sentenced to one year and one day in prison after pleading guilty in June to a criminal civil-rights conspiracy against the pro-life centers, which provide free services such as ultrasounds, counseling, baby clothes and diapers — but not abortions.

His co-defendants, Annabella Rivera and Amber Smith-Stewart, were given lighter sentences. Each will serve 30 days in prison followed by 60 days in home detention, according to the Justice Department.

“These defendants conspired to threaten and intimidate providers offering reproductive health care,” said U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg for the Middle District of Florida. “Federal law protects these providers and those who seek their services. My office will continue its work to protect access to reproductive health care and federally prosecute those interfering with that right.”

Vandals hit three Florida centers from May to July 2022: the South Broward Pregnancy Help Center in Hollywood; the Life Choice Pregnancy Center in Winter Haven, and the Heartbeat of Miami Pregnancy Help Medical Clinic in Hialeah.

The attacks included spray-painting messages on the buildings such as “Jane’s Revenge,” the name of the shadowy abortion-rights group that terrorized pro-life centers following the May 2022 leak of the Supreme Court’s draft majority opinion decision in Dobbs v. Jackson overturning Roe.

“The defendants admitted they participated in the attack in the dark of night, and while wearing masks and dark clothing to obscure their identities, spray painted the facilities with threatening messages, including ‘If abortions aren’t safe than niether [sic] are you,’ ‘YOUR TIME IS UP!!,’ ‘WE’RE COMING for U’ and ‘We are everywhere,’” said the Justice Department press release.

Florida Man Sentenced for Civil Rights Conspiracy Targeting Pregnancy Resource Centers

🔗: https://t.co/Qwm2nBQw8S pic.twitter.com/bQ9wS14xAQ

— DOJ Civil Rights Division (@CivilRights) September 12, 2024

The three activists, along with a fourth defendant, Gabriella Oropesa, agreed in July to pay restitution and stay away from the pro-life pregnancy centers, part of a deal to settle a state-filed civil lawsuit over violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

The three also apologized, although Rivera expressed disbelief Thursday at the process.

“I never thought that the act of spray-painting a fake ’clinic’ would result in the FBI violently raiding my house or that I would become a pawn in the fight for a person’s right to bodily autonomy — something an overwhelming majority of citizens in the United States believe in,” she said in a press release.

The Civil Liberties Defense Center in Eugene, Oregon, which represented the defendants, characterized the prison sentences as overkill.

“The crimes these defendants have admitted to and took responsibility for would normally result in a state or municipal court misdemeanor for graffiti,” said the center release. “Caleb Freestone’s longer sentence was attributed to minor activism [because] he had been arrested for wheat-pasting flyers on private buildings — the charges were later dismissed but the court heavily punished him for it.”

Lauren Regan, the center’s director of litigation and advocacy, said the activists were the victims of political pressure.

“These reproductive justice activists are the first pro-choice people to be prosecuted under this statute after pressure was applied to the Department of Justice by Florida politicians,” she said. “They are also the first to be prosecuted for minor property damage that occurred when there were no patients or workers around.”

On the other side, Jeremy Dys, senior counsel of the First Liberty Institute, applauded the sentencing and credited Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody for bringing action against the perpetrators.

“The sentencing of those who used violence against faith-based organizations trying to provide supplies and support women and their babies serves as a reminder that no one should use violence to express disagreement,” said Mr. Dys. “Thanks to Attorney General Moody’s leadership, those who chose to target life-affirming reproductive health facilities with violence have received the legal penalties Congress established for their crimes.”

According to the CatholicVote tracker, more than 90 pro-life offices and centers have been attacked since May 2022, including three firebombings, but the three Florida activists are the first to be convicted and sentenced.

Pro-life advocates have accused the Justice Department of bias, given that about two dozen anti-abortion activists have been charged or convicted in protests at abortion clinics under the Biden administration.

They include Lauren Handy, who was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for organizing a 2020 blockade of an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C.; Bevelyn Beatty Williams, who received 41 months in prison for interfering with access to a Manhattan abortion clinic in 2020, and Calvin Zastrow, sentenced to six months for a 2021 blockade outside an abortion facility in Mount Juliet, Tennessee.

The FACE Act applies to abortion clinics and pro-life pregnancy centers alike, but 205 of the 211 cases brought under the law from 1994 to 2024 were against anti-abortion activists, or 97%, according to Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican.

Ms. Regan argued that the case “marks a dangerous shift in the misuse of the FACE Act, twisting it from a law designed to protect abortion providers into a tool for punishing those who stand up for reproductive rights.”