On Wednesday The DOJ announced that eight people: Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Caroline Davis, Calvin Zastrow, Eva Edl and Eva Zastrow are accused of “engaging in a civil rights conspiracy” and violating the FACE Act in connection with an August 2020 blockade of an abortion clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Facing additional charges, Idoni and Edl are said to have allegedly violated the FACE Act, in connection with an April 2021 blockade of an abortion clinic in Saginaw, Michigan.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, outlaws “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.” A violation of the law, carries up to 11 years in prison and $350,000 in fines.
According to The Detroit News, reportedly the allegations stem from an incident at the Northland Family Planning Clinic.:
“Authorities said Gallagher promoted a planned blockade at the clinic over social media. They claim he and the other seven members of the group gathered at a location near the clinic just before it opened and then walked to the facility. They sat and stood in front of the clinic’s main entrance and blocked the doors.”
-The Detroit News
Recording the demonstration with their phones, Curry and Gallagher, allegedly live streamed the event to social media. Additionally, the group is accused of prohibiting a woman from entering into the clinic “even after she told them she had an appointment to get birth control.” Preventing ”clinic employees and the facility’s owner from entering”, Zastrow, reportedly, “sat in front of the door.”
The report also stated:
“The group prevented another patient from entering the clinic, federal prosecutors said, and Sterling Heights police officers were called. Police directed the group to move, but they refused and instead engaged them in conversation as an alleged delay tactic.”
“The longer they talk with us, the better the opportunity we have to see women and children rescued,” Gallagher said, according to the complaint. “And that’s what obstructing the door of an abortion clinic is about and why it’s so successful. We are here blocking access so the doors can’t open.”
-The Detroit News
Collaboratively, the FBI Detroit Field Office and Bay City Resident Agency investigated the case. However, prosecuting the case, are the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Republican lawmakers and Conservative activists and have long accused the agencies of unevenly applying justice. The FBI insists, however, that the agency is not politically motivated. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, told the outlet, that the indictment announcement-
“further confirms that this Administration will spare no expense or resource when it comes to hunting down pro-life Americans.”…“The shame is that they have no interest in equally pursuing pro-abortion domestic criminals that have vandalized and desecrated hundreds of churches and pregnancy care centers,”… “The Department of Justice should not play favorites when enforcing the law, yet that seems to be the new policy.”
-Brian Burch, President of CatholicVote
“Justice is justly represented blind, because she sees no difference in the parties concerned. She has but one scale and weight, for rich and poor, great and SMALL.” [With Emphasis]
-William Penn
AND
“Human life is created in God's image, and that makes it sacred.”
-Colin S. Smith