Three more pro-life activists sentenced under FACE Act

Pro-life activists are facing federal charges for protesting abortion at the Carafem Health Center Clinic, in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. / Credit: Ichabod|Wikimedia|GFDL

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 31, 2024 / 18:02 pm (CNA).

Three more pro-life activists have been sentenced for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act through their involvement in a 2021 blockade of a Tennessee abortion clinic.

James Zastrow, Eva Zastrow, and Paul Place were sentenced to 90 days in home detention and three years of probation for a “rescue” attempt in which they blockaded the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, according to reporting by ABC News. The sentences were carried out by U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee Aleta Trauger.

The sentencing for Eva Edl, an elderly pro-life activist who was also found guilty of being involved in the same rescue attempt, was delayed until August. Edl is 89 years old and a survivor of a communist concentration camp.

This comes after an FBI investigation and the U.S. attorney’s office prosecution led to the four pro-life activists and seven others being found guilty of criminal charges against the FACE Act in April.

An April press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee said that evidence proved that the activists “violated the FACE Act by using physical obstruction over the course of several hours to interfere with the clinic’s employees and a patient, because the clinic was providing, and the patient sought, reproductive health services.”

The blockade was documented in a March 5, 2021, video posted on Facebook. The video shows a large group of pro-life activists ranging from elderly to young children walking into an abortion clinic and blocking the door by sitting in front of it. The activists can be seen singing Christian hymns and praying while police demand they leave. Some comply with the police requests, but some do not, leading to their arrests.  

The FACE Act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994. It imposes criminal penalties on individuals convicted of “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct” that interferes with access to abortion clinics, places of worship, and pregnancy centers.

Several House and Senate Republicans have been calling for the FACE Act to be repealed because they say it is being unequally applied to target pro-life advocates.

The FACE Act has also garnered criticism for imposing harsh sentences on nonviolent violators such as Paulette Harlow, a 75-year-old woman with a debilitating medical condition who was sentenced to two years in prison for her involvement in a rescue attempt at the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a late term abortion clinic in Washington, D.C. Jean Marshall, 74, and several other pro-life activists were also sentenced to years in prison for the same incident. 

According to the Daily Caller, 97% of all 211 FACE Act cases have been against pro-life activists.