Federal judge sentences 4 anti-abortion activists for a 2021 Tennessee clinic blockade

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Four anti-abortion activists who convicted in January on conspiracy charges for their roles in a 2021 blockade of a Tennessee clinic were sentenced this week to sentences ranging from six months in prison to three years of supervised release. The sentences were less than what prosecutors had sought, and U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger said she took into account the defendants’ good works in their communities.

While the judge acknowledged that their actions were based on sincerely held religious beliefs, she said that was no excuse to break the law. The defendants used their religious zeal to “give themselves permission to ignore the pain they were causing other people and to ignore their own humanity,” Trauger said.

About 200 supporters, many of them parents with children, gathered and prayed outside the federal courthouse in Nashville before the sentencing hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday. They also filled a courtroom where the proceedings were being livestreamed, filling the pews and spilling onto the floor and into the hallway.

The convictions stem from a blockade at the Carafem reproductive health clinic in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, a town 17 miles (27.36 kilometers) east of Nashville, nearly a year before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Organizers used social media to promote and livestream actions they hoped would stop the clinic from performing abortions, according to testimony. They also intended the video as a training tool for other activists, Trauger found.

At the time, abortion was still legal in Tennessee. It is now illegal at all stages of pregnancy under a law that very limited exemptions.

In all, 11 people have been convicted of offenses related to the blockade. The four sentenced this week were among six people convicted of both violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and more serious felony conspiracy charges for their roles as organizers. Lawyers for the defendants have argued that prosecutors overreached by charging them with a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $260,000.

Trauger eventually gave much lighter sentences. Paul Vaughn and Dennis Green were given three years of supervised release. Coleman Boyd was given five years of probation. Calvin Zastrow, considered a key organizer, was given a six-month sentence followed by three years of supervised release. Boyd, the only one of the four who Trauger felt could afford it, was fined $10,000.

Trauger previously agreed to defer sentencing until September on the two remaining felony convictions. Heather Idoni and Chester Gallagher were preparing for trial in Michigan in August on similar charges. Idoni is currently serving a two-year sentence for a Blockade of clinic in Washington, DC in 2020

One suspect, Caroline Davis, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in October and cooperated with prosecutors, was sentenced to three years’ probation in April. Four others were convicted in April of violating the law for blocking the clinic’s main entrance, preventing patients from entering. Police asked them multiple times to leave or move, but they refused and were eventually arrested. They were scheduled to be sentenced July 30 and face up to six months in prison, five years of supervised release and fines of up to $10,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.