NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee jury has convicted six anti-abortion protesters of violating federal law after blocking the entrance to a reproductive clinic outside Nashville nearly three years ago.
The jury’s decision, handed down late Tuesday after a weeklong trial, marks the latest development in a case that has been closely watched by conservative groups, which have accused the federal government of unfairly targeting abortion opponents. have attacked using the 1994 federal law designed to protect abortion clinics. against obstacles and threats. Reproductive rights advocates are opposing the law, known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or the FACE Act, which is more important than ever in protecting abortion providers from violence now that the constitutional right to abortion has been repealed.
At issue is a 2021 “blockade” that was held outside a reproductive health clinic in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, a city 17 miles (27.36 kilometers) east of Nashville, nearly a year before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The event was organized by anti-abortion supporters who used social media to promote and livestream actions they hoped would prevent the clinic from performing abortions, court documents show.
At the time, abortion was still legal in Tennessee. It is now banned at all stages of pregnancy under a law that has very limited exceptions.
Prosecutors say the participants spread out across the office building where Carafem’s health clinic was located and later some of them began recording themselves as they “led a rescue effort,” a term widely known among anti-abortion activists as prevents women from having an abortion. Prosecutors added that videos from that day showed people blocking the clinic entrances and others trying to contact police as a delaying tactic. About twenty people attended the blockade.
While a federal grand jury initially indicted 11 people who took part in last year’s blockade, six were convicted on Tuesday. They are Chester Gallagher, Paul Vaughn, Heather Idoni, Calvin Zastrow, Coleman Boyd and Dennis Green. They face 10 1/2 years in prison and fines of up to $260,000. The sentencing hearings will take place on July 2.
“These defendants knowingly chose to violate laws they disagreed with,” U.S. Attorney Henry C. Leventis said in a statement. “Today’s jury verdict is a victory for the rule of law in this country and a reminder that we cannot choose which laws we follow.”
Lawyers representing the suspects say they plan to appeal the convictions. The legal team has described the 2021 demonstration as a “peaceful, life-affirming gathering” and has accused the federal Justice Department of prosecuting “pro-life activists” since the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 abortion decision.
“This was a peaceful demonstration by completely peaceful citizens – filled with prayer, hymn singing and worship – aimed at convincing expectant mothers not to abort their babies,” said Steve Crampton, an attorney with the Thomas More Society.
Before Roe was overturned, the Justice Department oversaw only a handful of cases of violations of the FACE Act. In 2021, only three cases involving three defendants were charged, and in 2020 the office handled just one case.
By 2022, that number had risen to 11 cases involving 29 suspects. And last year there were 10 cases and 22 defendants.
Advocates like the National Abortion Federation say the increase in cases reflects the increase in harassment and violence abortion clinics have faced since state abortion bans went into effect.
In a 2022 report, the organization said abortion providers in the U.S. saw noticeable spikes in death threats, stalkings, burglaries and arson compared to the previous year.
Still, a growing number of conservative groups and Republican lawmakers have responded to these figures, saying law enforcement has downplayed similar threats and violence against Catholic churches and so-called “crisis pregnancy centers,” which provide abortion counseling.
Some have called on the Justice Department to more equitably apply the 1994 federal law and use it to investigate those who target crisis pregnancy centers. Meanwhile, a handful of Republican members of Congress have introduced legislation that would completely repeal the protections.
President Bill Clinton signed the FACE Act in 1994 after a series of high-profile attacks on abortion clinics, with Dr. David Gunn in 1993 was shot and killed outside an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Florida – marking the first abortion provider to be killed in the US