According to the DOJ, eleven pro-life protestors have been charged for physically obstructing an abortion clinic in Tennessee and intimidating staff members and clients.
They invaded the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mount Juliet on March 5 of last year and blocked staff members and at least one potential patient from accessing the premises. They have been accused of breaking the FACE Act.
Bill Clinton approved the FACE Act in 1994, which forbids protesters from obstructing abortion facilities.
For planning the demonstrations, seven of the protestors have been charged with a civil rights conspiracy.
The ringleader Chester Gallagher, 73, and Coleman Boyd, 50, a pro-life doctor who has been reported to visit abortion facilities and read scripture in an effort to persuade women to alter their minds, are both charged.
Those accused of conspiring might get up to 11 years in prison and a $350,000 fine, while the others could receive a $10,000 fine and a year in jail.
The DOJ claims that the 11 people “used force and physical obstruction to hurt, intimidate and interfere with workers of the clinic and a patient who was seeking reproductive health care,” aiding and abetting one another in their criminal activity.
Chester Gallagher is accused of conspiring to plan a number of anti-abortion demonstrations, including the Carafem blockage, for early March in the Nashville region.
The obstruction, according to Gallagher, was a “rescue,” and it was planned to take place the next day.
Boyd broadcast the demonstration live online while the gang loitered in the clinic’s hallways, blocking the entrances and preventing anyone from entering and exiting.
According to Mt Juliet police, who were summoned at about 8am, the demonstration started as a “calm gathering” outside the clinic but became violent once the protesters walked inside and refused to leave.
David Zastrow, a protester who remained outside and refrained from entering the clinic, told NewsChannel5 that his group wants to “make sure they don’t feel welcome to slaughter infants in our city.”
We hear that some moms planned to murder their unborn children inside the second-floor abortion clinic, but a group of Christians felt they could prevent that from occurring.
Unknown guy said he entered to “place ourselves between an abortion practitioner and ladies seeking abortion.”
According to Captain Tyler Chandler of the Mt. Juliet Police Department at the time, there was no resistance to arrest during the demonstration.
No force was used, and no one had to be forcibly removed, Chandler said.
It seems that this group arrived today with the intention of being arrested by our department since they then started handing out paperwork claiming to have already been arrested.
Trespassing and juvenile offenses were issued to eight adults and four teens, and four of the adults were additionally accused of aiding a minor’s delinquency.
But now that 18 months have passed, they are facing federal accusations.
Seven protestors, including Chester Gallagher, 73; Paul Vaughn, 55; Heather Idoni, 58; Calvin Zastrow, 57; Caroline Davis, 24; Coleman Boyd, 51; and Dennis Green, 56, were charged by the DOJ with “conspiracy against rights granted by the FACE Act.”
Four other people were named in the indictment as having violated the FACE Act: Eva Edl, 87; Eva Zastrow, 24; James Zastrow, 25; and Paul Place, 24.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas defended the demonstrators and denounced the Biden DOJ’s “outrageous political behavior” on Twitter.
‘Blocking the entry into or out of any company is unacceptable – it is harassment, it is criminal, and it will not be accepted,’ the Carafem clinic said in a statement.
“No one should be frightened while attempting to start a small company of any sort or prevented from receiving health care.” Nobody should be subjected to harassment or interference.
When Mount Juliet city commissioners enacted a zoning code that effectively outlawed surgical abortions anywhere inside the city borders, the Carafem clinic had become used to protestors loitering outside the facility and even faced intimidation from the city.
In 2020, Carafem sued the city in federal court in Nashville and was successful in regaining their ability to provide abortions. They also received $225,000 in legal costs.
According to a news release from Andrew Beck, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, “City commissioners in Mt. Juliet have now squandered public money and months in court, in a failed effort to limit access to abortion.”
However, when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in June of this year, Tennessee enacted an abortion ban in the state.
After eventually being ordered to cease performing abortions, the clinic complied with the order on August 25.
On its website, they announced that as of August 25, 2022, “carafem’s Mt. Juliet health facility would no longer offer procedural abortion or abortion pills due to Tennessee’s abortion law.”
“Carafem’s doors will stay open and in accordance with state law giving a broad variety of treatments including inexpensive birth control alternatives, STI testing and treatment, pregnancy testing, and ultrasound for dating pregnancy,” the company’s website states.
Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization judgment on June 24 that eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion, Carafem is one of 66 clinics in 15 states that have ceased performing abortions.
The facilities are situated in Wisconsin and Georgia in addition to the 13 states that have passed almost complete abortion prohibitions since the Dobbs decision.
22 million women between the ages of 15 and 49 who are childbearing age (or 30% of all women in the country) reside in these fifteen states.
According to the research, almost a third of the country’s female population must cross several state lines and spend a lot of money and time traveling to neighboring states to get an abortion.
Clinics in Wisconsin have stopped performing abortions because to confusion over the applicability of an 1849 prohibition, which doctors claim is ambiguous, making them terrified of further legal action should they perform an abortion.
Only 13 of the 79 clinics that were located in these 15 states before to the Dobbs decision are still operating, although with restrictions.
All 13 of the facilities are situated in Georgia, a state that still permits abortions. Legislation passed on July 20 only extends that to the sixth week of pregnancy.