DOJ Charging Pro-Life Activists for Blocking Abortion Clinic But Ignore Those Who Vandalize Pregnancy Centers, Churches
“Something truly evil is happening at the DOJ.”
Greg Price is correct: “Something truly evil is happening at the DOJ.”
The DOJ remained silent even when pro-abortion activists declared a “Night of Rage” if SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade. The group “Jane’s Revenge” declared an “Open Season” on pregnancy centers.
I’ve had difficulty keeping up with all the stories of abortion fanatics vandalizing pregnancy centers and churches since SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade.
They’re not protesting or blocking the centers. They are vandalizing and destroying property.
BREAKING: Somebody vandalized and allegedly threw Molotov cocktails into Wisconsin Family Action’s — an anti-abortion rights group — Madison office, writing w/ graffiti, “If abortions aren’t safe, then you aren’t either.”
Story TK pic.twitter.com/6Wfnyeh9hQ
— Alexander Shur (@AlexanderShur) May 8, 2022
Instead, the DOJ charged 11 pro-lifers for blocking an abortion clinic…in 2021! From Live Action:
In early March of 2021, a group of individuals committed to saving the lives of preborn children visited the Carafem abortion facility in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, as part of a “rescue” — an event meant to reach women seeking abortion, to persuade them to choose life for their preborn children instead. Today, October 5, 2022, that event of more than a year ago culminated in a visit from the FBI to at least one of the activist’s homes. Other individuals, who either participated or were merely present at the facility that day, were ordered to report to their local authorities to be charged under the federal FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act along with charges of conspiracy.
The event in March 2021 was reportedly peaceful, with participants lining the inside hallway of a shared general medical office building which, in one area, houses the Carafem abortion facility. The rescuers who were gathered that day prayed and sang, and the event was nonviolent. Some recorded the events on video. Several participants were arrested by local police that day and were later released after posting bail for misdemeanor trespass charges. (Read more here and here.)
I’m shocked the DOJ didn’t charge them with domestic terrorism since the administration considers that the #1 threat to America. That’s why they’re targeting concerned parents at school board meetings.
The press release lists those facing charges:
Chester Gallagher, 73, of Lebanon, Tennessee; Heather Idoni, 58; Calvin Zastrow, 57; and Caroline Davis, 24; all of Michigan; Coleman Boyd, 51, of Bolton, Mississippi; Dennis Green, 56, of Cumberland, Virginia; and Paul Vaughn, 55, of Centerville, Tennessee.
The indictment also charges the following individuals with committing FACE Act violations: Eva Edl, 87, of Aiken South Carolina; Eva Zastro, 24, of Dover, Arkansas; James Zastro, 25, of Eldon, Missouri; and Paul Place, 24, of Centerville, Tennessee. All defendants will have appearances scheduled in U.S. District Court in Nashville at a later date.
The DOJ alleges that “Chester Gallagher utilized social media to promote a series of anti-abortion events scheduled for March 4-7, 2021, in the Nashville area.” The other “co-conspirators” used Facebook to plan the blockade.
Man, Gallagher is such an extremist. He called the “blockade” a rescue! Then he had the nerve to live stream the event.
The DOJ also claims that the evil people “aided and abetted by one another, used force and physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, and interfere with employees of the clinic and a patient who was seeking reproductive health services.”
“Reproductive health services.”
But, um, the video shows a peaceful event. They’re praying and talking to people. HORRIFYING. At the beginning of the video, the group spoke to one woman. They were not rude or violent. When the lady didn’t respond to their pleas, they left her alone. Instead, they offered to help the woman there to get an abortion. Compassion and understanding.
The abortion worker was obsessed with the people not wearing masks. *eye roll*
It also sounds like Gallagher referred to the doctor as a baby killer, not the mother.
The FBI reportedly arrived at Gallagher’s home with their “guns drawn” and went inside. Gallagher was not home.
Pro-life activist AJ Hurley told Live Action the FBI called the other people about the “arrest warrants and had to turn themselves in.”
Last month, almost 30 FBI agents arrested Mark Houck with their guns drawn in front of his wife and seven children. The DOJ also charged him with violating FACE. Like those in Tennessee, he politely spoke to women at abortion clinics about saving the life of their children.
Houck’s activism only caught the eyes of authorities when a volunteer abortion escort accosted Housck’s son!
In Michigan, a man is charged with shooting an elderly pro-life activist in the back as she handed out pro-life pamphlets.
CatholicVote released an ad in August targeting President Joe Biden and the DOJ for ignoring anti-Catholic violence.
At the time of publication, Catholic News Agency reported at least 93 attacks against Catholic churches, schools, pro-life organizations, and pregnancy centers.
Not ONE peep from the DOJ. They have done nothing even though a pregnancy clinic director said they had to hire more security and install bullet-proof walls. This is a pregnancy center that offers abortion counseling.
Yes, if the pregnancy center is not affiliated with a religion, it usually offers abortion counseling. Not necessarily abortions, but counseling and resources. I still promote those centers because they provide counseling and resources for adopting and keeping the baby.
But you have lies spewing from the mouths of pro-abortion politicians like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who insists these pregnancy centers lie and deceive women.
The DOJ needs to investigate these attacks:
My wife works at a pregnancy center in Denton, TX. It was vandalized last night. Please pray for the people who work there. They help women and their babies with anything from preborn to 3 years of age. They are beautiful people and don’t deserve this hate. #ProLife #Catholic pic.twitter.com/63BLvNDMkQ
— Gregory Ellis (@Gre29) May 7, 2022
The group calling itself Jane's Revenge — which has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on pregnancy care centers — now declares it's "open season" on Pro-Life groups. Capitol Hill correspondent @ErikRosalesNews reports. pic.twitter.com/9ZectKKgai
— EWTN News Nightly (@EWTNNewsNightly) June 17, 2022
Rev. James Harden is the CEO of a pro-life pregnancy center that was firebombed by radical leftists. He tells Tucker that he gave the FBI security footage of the act, they took it, have made no arrests, and refuse to give it back because it could "inspire right-wing terrorism." pic.twitter.com/kf6P6cXyf0
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 30, 2022
Catholic News Agency has released footage of members of far-left group Jane's Revenge carrying out vandalism attack on South Broward Pregnancy Help Center in Hollywood, FL on May 28. The #Antifa group has carried out attacks on pregnancy centers across US.https://t.co/c2Mkb1RFC6 pic.twitter.com/33k2NDFlhE
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) June 11, 2022
Life Choices crisis pregnancy center in Longmont, CO was attacked by left wing extremists this weekend.
We visited the site this morning with @heidiganahl where she condemned the violence and called on @jaredpolis to have the courage to do the same #copolitics pic.twitter.com/X4hRdZtPwV
— Campfire Colorado (@CampfireColo) June 26, 2022
A 31-year-old pro-abortion extremist was so mad about Roe v. Wade, he vandalized St. Louise Catholic Church in Bellevue, WA.
Upon arrest, Bellevue Police allege the suspect busted up a police cruiser.
Bellevue PD tells local FOX News that this falls under a hate crime. pic.twitter.com/WdGuft9Ozq
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) June 29, 2022
Supporters of abortion rights are protesting outside @StPatsNYC. One protester told me they decided to protest outside the cathedral because the Catholic Church “are pro-life ghouls who want women to die.” @nycDSA @nycforabortion pic.twitter.com/tsjfbSHf5t
— Liam Stack (@liamstack) June 29, 2022
As Biden says his administration is spending hundreds of millions to “protect places of worship” so people “can practice their faith without fear,” Catholic Church leaders are imploring the administration to stop pushing for abortion expansion. Correspondent @owentjensen reports. pic.twitter.com/qmgh7GN2M1
— EWTN News Nightly (@EWTNNewsNightly) August 5, 2022
A Catholic church in Northern Virginia was vandalized early Sunday morning. Officials say that Fairfax County Fire and Rescue received a call around 6:45 a.m. on Sunday that mulch was smoking at St. John Neumann Catholic Community Church. pic.twitter.com/PLlS7P0qU9
— All Things DC MD VA (@TheDMVDaily) June 27, 2022
Catholic Church in Hillsborough North Carolina vandalized with pro abortion graffiti.
'I heart abortion', 'F*ck the church', and Anarchist symbols among ithttps://t.co/C94WhmnXSW pic.twitter.com/F3eSc2sWVA
— AntifaWatch (@AntifaWatch2) July 4, 2022
Longtime Pro-Life sign along Ironwood in South Bend, near Little Flower Catholic Church, vandalized. pic.twitter.com/V9IIGPjsx4
— Terry McFadden (@TMcFaddenWNDU) June 25, 2022
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Comments
Biden’s Gestapo is stepping up the oppression and its political terror operation against the Dem’s political opposition.
What will the GOP do about it after staking the House and possibly the Senate?
If the GOPe is in charge, probably little to nothing beyond strongly worded letters and harsh committee rhetoric. I’d like to be wrong about that.
But considering they are doing nothing about Garland’s Gulag and the abuse and torture of J6 political prisoners, I am not optimistic.
Most likely there will be two more years of political oppression and terror from Biden’s Gestapo.
It won’t end until a Trump or DeSantis occupies the WH in Jan’ 2025. Assuming The Regime let’s that happen.
Two tiers of justice. Well, actually, no justice. Not even an attempt to make it look legitimate.
When you need 30 armed FIB agents to “take down” a Bible reader, you are verging into Gestapo territory. I usually hesitate to use those sorts of comparisons, but this one is forcing itself on us. Thuggery that is supported by the regime.
Let’s just start calling the abortion enthusiasts “abortion terrorists,” shall we?
The only tool available is a government shutdown which won’t work long term and will cause major backlash against us.
Sadly what retaking the house means is no more of the occasional Democrat spending sprees and what retaking the senate means is no more appointments that require senate confirmation.
Sorry you are pretending not to understand how our system works but in our system the presidential authority is just way too powerful for congress (unless it has veto proof margins but we can’t even realistically hope to get filibuster proof margins).
Control of congress does nothing about the executive agencies; but there are other catastrophes from not controlling congress.
Blocking access to an abortion clinic violates a federal law that Congress enacted specifically to protect such access. That makes it DOJ’s business to prosecute it. What federal law did these other people violate? Their crimes seem to be matters for state law enforcement, not for the DOJ.
Setting fire to a pregnancy center is a pretty effective way to illegally block access. Maybe the fire marshal or building code supervisor needs to be arrested?
So what? You are not answering the question: What federal law would they be breaking? Blocking access to a “pregnancy center” is not a federal crime. It’s not even a state crime, other than the same way blocking access to anywhere is.
Title 18, 248, a 1-3
It SPECIFICALLY calls out “physical obstruction” of access to the reproductive health facility in addition to restricting the person
There you go recruiting extremists again!
(sarc)
They would be breaking the same federal law that those people are charged with. From the act, “(3) intentionally damages or destroys the property of a
facility, or attempts to do so, because such facility provides
reproductive health services, or intentionally damages or
destroys the property of a place of religious worship,…”
Millhouse, blocking access is a federal crime:
18 U.S. Code § 248 – Freedom of access to clinic entrances
(a)Prohibited Activities.—Whoever—
(1)by force or threat of force or by physical obstruction, intentionally injures, intimidates or interferes with or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person because that person is or has been, or in order to intimidate such person or any other person or any class of persons from, obtaining or providing reproductive health services;
reproductive health services
(5) Reproductive health services .— The term “reproductive health services” means reproductive health services provided in a hospital, clinic, physician’s office, or other facility, and includes medical, surgical, counselling or referral services relating to the human reproductive system, including services relating to pregnancy or the termination of a pregnancy.
Reproductive health services are not just pro-abortion facilities. Come to think of it, Newsom better be careful Californian legislation doesn’t end up violating the FACE Act! Not that there’d be any consequences whilst Democrats are in Congress, but if Republicans assume power next year, and find a backbone …
In addition to the statutes that make it a crime to damage or deface reproductive health centers, it is instructive to remember that President Kennedy turned the FBI and DOJ on the criminals who burned, bombed and defaced churches and other African American institutions.
The same 1st Amendment federal powers are invoked when the pregnancy centers’ freedom of expression and freedom of speech are violated by their defacement and burning. It’s also a federal hate crime.
See this ad campaign as well:
“In the 1960s, when churches were burned, President Kennedy stepped up, condemned it,” the video’s narration states. The voice of President John F. Kennedy can be heard next: “To burn churches I consider both cowardly as well as outrageous.”
The ad points out that Kennedy “pledged justice” in response to attacks on churches, saying: “As soon as we are able to find out who did it, we’ll arrest them.”
“Now churches are being burned again, because they protect unborn babies and women in need,” the ad points out. Next it shows a clip of “our second Catholic president” responding to pro-abortion groups’ attacks against Catholics. “Keep protesting, because keep making your point,” Biden said.
As CatholicVote has reported, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has found itself in numerous confrontations with President Biden since he took office, many of them over the Catholic Church’s teaching on the sanctity of life, which the president rejects.
In addition, CatholicVote has tracked nearly 70 attacks on Catholic churches since early May, when radical abortion groups first threatened a “summer of rage” in response to reports that the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court – including a number of Catholic justices – planned to rule Roe vs. Wade unconstitutional.
CatholicVote’s violence trackers, which include a tracker of pro-abortion attacks on crisis pregnancy centers (64 since May) and a tracker of attacks on Catholic churches, have been cited by lawmakers and journalists who are challenging the Biden administration to address the violence.
CatholicVote President Brian Burch has also repeatedly appealed to the Biden Justice Department to enforce the law against the ongoing attacks.
In June CatholicVote was joined by a number of other leading organizations in sending a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding action.
“We, the undersigned representing millions of Americans, are writing to voice our concerns over the increased attacks against churches, pregnancy resource centers and pro-life organizations in the aftermath of the leaked draft opinion in the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,” the letter stated:
In December of last year, the Department of Justice was asked how it was investigating the repeated attacks on churches in the United States. The Attorney General was also asked to investigate those complaints and take appropriate action as is your duty. Since that request there has been public silence.
“The American people are disgusted by the inaction of our Justice Department,” said CatholicVote’s Joshua Mercer on Tuesday. “This ad sends an important message, calling on our lawmakers to demand action against this vicious campaign of targeted violence against Catholics.”
Readers can watch the CatholicVote ad by clicking here.
https://catholicvote.org/1-million-catholicvote-ad-calls-out-biden-over-anti-catholic-violence/
Imagine my shock and surprise seeing Milhouse show up to try to defend a democratic tactic.
Imagine my surprise that you are so dishonest that you don’t even understand the concept of being honest.
The DOJ prosecuting federal crimes is not a “Democrat tactic”, it’s its job. An honest Republican administration would do exactly the same thing. To ask why it’s not prosecuting some other crime, you have to first show that it is a federal crime. So long as you can’t do that it is dishonest to complain about the disparate treatment. But you don’t understand the whole idea of being honest. You change your opinions depending on whose ox is gored. That is disgusting.
Actually “defacing” the reproductive facility (and churches) IS covered in the FACE act in the same manner. (a3)
Yet, I don’t see that “same job” enforced against any left organization like it is conservatives.
My scale is equal.
Well, I’m sure the federal take on this is going to be that a clinic that performs actual medical procedures is a “reproductive facility,” whereas a storefront that performs only counseling and referrals is not.
@Henry
That would not surprise me in the slightest
No, Milhouse, you try so hard to pretend to be ‘fair’ that your brain falls out in the twisted circumlocutions you go through to justify the unjustifiable.
You might take a gander at 18 U.S. Code § 1507 which restricts picketing at the homes of Federal Judges. Were there any prosecutions for violation of that Statute despite the near assasination of Kavanaugh?
It does no such thing. It bans only attempts to influence a judge’s decision, in exactly the same way as it bans attempts to influence a juror’s vote. The demonstrations outside Supreme Court justices homes were not intended to influence their decision. They were protesting against that decision, and there is no federal law against that. The best proof is that they continued the protests even after the decision was published.
(The MD and VA state laws against such protests are clearly unconstitutional. The Montgomery County law appears to be facially valid, but the county DA is dubious, and has a policy of not enforcing it on anybody.)
And there was no “near assassination”. A crazy person brought a gun with the intent of killing him, but made no attempt to use it, and then turned himself in to the police. That’s concerning enough, but calling it an “attempted assassination” is untrue, and minimizes actual attempts, such as the one on the Republican softball team that nearly killed Scalise.
You must of been of the “participants” outside the SCJ’s houses in order for you to come up with that crap to vomit out
Bullshit and lies 100% bullshit and lies. Protests by definition are meant to influence a decision, those protests EXPLICITLY were about trying to CHANGE a verdict that the judges had come to (where the hell was the protests outside of the liberal justices homes and what the hell did those protests say you idiot).
Those protests explicitly broke the law they tried to use power to influence a judges decision. Doing that is illegal because my right to a fair process in court outranks your right to intimidate a judge into changing his mind by roughly a trillion to zero.
By the way you could take your establishments and your institutions and shove it. A leftist tried to kill a supreme court justice for political reasons stop trying to defend the indefensible.
Of course you still justify George W Bush’ cultural imperialist war that killed countless 5 year olds grandmothers and turned young Iraqi men into criminals for not wanting us to destroy their culture and religion (and made countless young Iraqis dead) so you are an expert at defending the indefensible.
As I remember, Justice William O. Douglas said that if you defy the law to defend your stance, be prepared to suffer the consequences. They broke the law but they are treated as political crimes against “The State”. By the way, if you were suddenly transported back to Germany 1938, would you defend the Nuremberg Laws in the courts? We are seeing an abuse of power which makes enforcement of these laws unethical.
More red herrings. The complaint here is that the DOJ is enforcing a very well-known federal law, while it is not doing anything about some other actions; such a complaint is simply invalid and dishonest unless you can first show that those actions violate a federal law. So I asked what federal law they violate, because I’m not aware of one. From the fact that you did not even attempt to answer, I gather that you are not aware of one either. No other answer is relevant or honest.
I did
18USC 248 a1-3
That “is” Federal Law
That related to freedom of access to medical centres. None of the vandalism took place in relation to those kinds of place.
Before you try and say pregnancy centres are medical, they aren’t they give pro life advise about choices. They are more akin to political advocates
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2022/10/06/the-fbi-raids-another-pro-life-activists-home-on-charges-trumped-up-by-the-doj-n1635088
You are of course still going to try to pretend this is OK.
Singing and praying and even protesting outside of abortion clinics does not block access. Providing information about alternatives does not block access.
Burning down and doing violence towards pregnancy centers violates the same law and the DOJ has not even pretended to investigate those.
Stop being an institutionalist; I used to think you were a libertarian but that outright pathetic attempt to defend the absolutely indefensible does seem to show you just have faith in the institutions to the most absurd degree and are loyal to them.
It is NEVER the DOJ prerogative to enforce a law selectively.
If you are ok with arresting one person at the protest you have to be ok with arresting all of them for the same charges. There is no middle ground and nobody on the right will agree to a moderate “only persecute a couple per hundred”. What you are seeing is not law it is blunt force done by KGB light.
They should charge both. It’s an activist problem.
Only one side is defacing and torching…
And only the other side is violating a federal law.
If you’re aware of some federal law against defacing and torching “pregnancy centers”, please cite it.
18USC 248 a1-3
The FACE act gives the same protection to pregnancy centers you idiot and yes defacing those things violently does block access (name one person who would go to a doctor in an office that is half burned).
Furthermore there are dozens of terrorism statutes that 100% cover attacking a building in order to intimidate people into your political point of view which Janes Revenge does explicitly.
Very well stated Danny
Pregnancy centres are absolutely not medical centres, nor are they reproductive health care facilties. All they do is give pamphlets pushing the ‘pro life’ agenda
18 U.S.C. § 248) is a United States law that was signed by President Bill Clinton in May 1994, which prohibits the following three things: (1) the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is obtaining an abortion, (2) the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is exercising or trying to exercise their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship, (3) the intentional damage or destruction of a reproductive health care facility or a place of worship.[1][2]
Note item three, Milhouse, and quit ‘being dishonest’ about if defacing them is blocking access.
It specifically call out damaging such locations as applicable to the law.
Garfunkel is a real Müller wannabe.
His daughter married one also
Why are you ignoring section three so determinedly Milhouse?
Just more proof that the FBI is nothing more than the Stasi. What I really think of them would get me banned.
This is really a 2-fold problem.
First is the law itself (a common problem). This law is really needless as things like obstruction and all that are already illegal at the local level.
Lawmakers often make “political laws” for reasons other than the fact we need another law.
Thats really a Congress issue we voters need to correct.
Now a law exists so this gives the DOJ jurisdiction to act.
Now the law- this is a double whammy (remember Nifong and the Duke case)
This law is worded where almost “anything” can be “viewed” to be a violation (open to interpretation)- but then people say to use “common sense” (seems the local jurisdiction did exactly that, but we can’t count on that level of critical thinking)
Thats bad enough but now to the individual Federal prosecutor.
His “discretion” (with the full force of Govt and infinite pockets) means whatever he says it is and that’s ripe for abuse.
We need to legislate more and better standards for the threshold of bringing charges (a monumental imperfect task to be sure)
Also, we need a process that defines and punishes abuse of the office and isn’t protected by immunity.
We most likely cannot force Congress to make good and properly vetted law as that is a different animal.
We can however hold prosecutors and agents accountable in abuse of the system.
We can be certain that no effort to stop abuse will ever happen unless and until the perp is held accountable and painfully.
I’m wondering if the Safe Act is now unconstitutional. Designed by the federal government to protect a constitutional right that no longer exists. Currently what federal jurisdiction is it based on? Seems to me this is now up to the states.
Did you mean FACE act?
As much as I don’t like it and disagree with it- I cannot see anything that would make it Unconstitutional.
It doesn’t protect abortion; it’s about restricting access and the wording closely follows the textbook definition of kidnapping.
Well, violation of the Equal protection clause might be a way…
The thing is the FACE act isn’t “favoring” anything or anyone so I don’t see how EP could attach.
People are entitled to equal protection of the law. Neither establishments nor causes are so entitled.
The FACE Act covers both people and places. The fact the DOJ are refusing to enforce that protection for certain kinds of people and places would be unequal protection.
The Act is not based on abortion being a constitutional right, so the fact that it isn’t one doesn’t affect it.
A State-sanctioned wicked solution under a nominally “secular” ethical religion. Walk like a Nazi…
The DOJ’s selective but heavy handed enforcement of the FACE Act to persecute those who may never have violated it whilst ignoring those who’ve blatantly violated it suggests the law has been weaponised to prosecute ideological foes.
In a democratic Constitution based society like America (ignore the debate over whether the US is a democracy for now), that’s highly problematic. If a Democrat DOJ can misapply the law like that then a Republican DOJ can give anti-abortion terrorism carte blanche (assuming such a thing exists), whilst arresting anyone that sneezes or blinks the wrong way at churches, pro-life facilities, and those connected with them.
The Left will of course scream at such a suggestion, but this is a simple continuation of the precedent the Left themselves set. The only change is an inversion of who is targeted and who is ignored.
Garfunkel is a real Müller wannabe.
His daughter married one also