Another Pro-Life Activist Sentenced for 2020 D.C. Abortion Clinic Protest

An eighth pro-life activist was sentenced on Wednesday under the Freedom of Access the Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and “conspiracy against rights” for an abortion clinic protest in Washington, DC, in October 2020.

Heather Idoni, 59, was sentenced to 24 months in prison, with credit for the nine months she has already served since being found guilty in August 2023, the Department of Justice announced.

Seven other pro-life activists were sentenced to years in federal prison last week for protesting at the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, DC, an abortion clinic infamous for late-term abortions. Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) activist Lauren Handy, 30, was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison with credit for the nine months she has already spent in jail. John Hinshaw, 69, was sentenced to 21 months in prison, and William Goodman, 54, was sentenced to 27 months in prison, both with credit for time served, according to the DOJ:

Last Wednesday, 42-year-old Jonathan Darnel, an Iraq war veteran who served two tours, was sentenced to 34 months behind bars with credit for time served. Herb Geraghty, a 27-year-old pro-life atheist, was sentenced to 27 months in prison with credit for time served. Jean Marshall, 74, was sentenced to 24 months in prison, and Joan Bell, 76, was sentenced to 27 months in prison, according to the DOJ.

Another activist, 75-year-old Paulette Harlow, is scheduled to be sentenced in late May. Idoni is also scheduled for sentencing in July for different FACE Act charges related to a different abortion clinic protest in Tennessee, according to the DOJ. A tenth activist, Jay Smith, was sentenced to ten months in prison in March 2023.

Last week, House Republicans sent a letter to the U.S. Marshals Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons raising concerns about reports that Marshall and Idoni were allegedly mistreated in jail while awaiting sentencing.

President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) brought conspiracy against rights and Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act charges against the pro-life activists in March of 2022 for the protest, which carried a maximum prison sentence of 11 years and $350,000 in fines. The nine activists besides Smith were found guilty in two separate trials in August and September of 2023 and were immediately taken to jail to await sentencing.

The FACE Act “prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services,” while conspiracy against rights — a charge that carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence — “makes it unlawful for two or more persons to agree to injure, threaten, or intimidate a person in the United States in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States or because of his or her having exercised such a right,” according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Prosecutors argued that the activists organized a blockade and used chains and locks to barricade the abortion clinic. In the process, prosecutors alleged that a nurse was injured and women were unable to access the clinic through the front entrance.

“Some simply kneeled and prayed at Santangelo’s facility, some passed out pro-life literature and counseled abortion-minded women, and others roped and chained themselves together inside the facility,” according the Handy’s attorneys from the Thomas More Society, which has represented other pro-life activists like Mark Houck and David Daleiden.

The DOJ charges occurred the same month that Handy andPAAU’s founder and former executive director Terrisa Bukovinac allegedly discovered the remains of approximately 115 aborted babies in a waste box from the Washington Surgi-Clinic, five of whom they say may have been partially aborted or killed after birth in violation of federal law. The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia previously told Breitbart News that it was investigating the discovery of the babies but not the clinic’s abortionist, Dr. Cesare Santangelo.

Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, the DOJ has notably charged more pro-life activists under the FACE Act than pro-abortion activists, despite FBI Director Christopher Wray admitting in November 2022 that approximately 70 percent of abortion-related threats of violence in the United States since Dobbs have been against pro-life groups.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta also admitted in December in remarks at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division’s 65th Anniversary that the end of Roe v.Wade dialed up “the urgency” of the DOJ’s work, including the “enforcement of the FACE Act, to ensure continued lawful access to reproductive services.”

Associate Attorney General nominee Vanita Gupta speaks during an event at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Delaware (AP Photo/Susan Walsh).

Out of dozens and dozens of attacks on pregnancy centers since the Dobbs leak, only a handful of pro-abortion activists have been arrested, including in Florida, New York, and Ohio.

When questioned by Republicans in March 2023 about the apparent enforcement discrepancy, Attorney General Merrick Garland claimed more pro-life activists have been prosecuted because they commit crimes “during the daylight,” while pro-abortion activists tend to strike at night.

Activists in the pro-life movement and some Republicans have been calling for the repeal of the FACE Act, arguing that the Biden administration has repeatedly weaponized the 1994 law against its political opponents.

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.