Trump pardons Massachusetts anti-abortion activists who blocked clinic entrance
President Trump has pardoned a pair of Bay State anti-abortion activists who were convicted and sentenced to federal prison for blocking a reproductive health clinic’s entrance.
Kingston women Paulette Harlow and Jean Marshall, both in their 70s, are among the anti-abortion activists who were pardoned by Trump this week.
They were sentenced to federal prison last year in connection with the Oct. 22, 2020 incident when blockaders linked themselves together with locks and chains to block the Washington, D.C. clinic’s doors.
Harlow and Marshall had been sentenced to 24 months following their convictions for federal conspiracy against rights and Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
Trump called it “a great honor to sign this.”
“They should not have been prosecuted,” he said as he signed pardons for “peaceful pro-life protesters.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. last year said the 10 defendants blocked the entrance to the reproductive health clinic to prevent patients from receiving reproductive health services.
The group’s leaders, Virginia residents Lauren Handy and Jonathan Darnel, organized the clinic blockade.
The anti-abortion activists planned and organized the clinic invasion using social media, text messages and telephone calls, and several co-conspirators traveled from Northeast and Midwest states to participate in the blockade.
“Prior to the clinic incursion, the defendants met with other co-conspirators to plan their crime, which included making a fake patient appointment to ensure the group’s entry into the clinic, using chains and locks to barricade the facility and passively resisting their anticipated arrests to prolong the blockade,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote.
“The clinic invasion was advertised on social media as a ‘historic’ event that was live-streamed on Facebook,” the feds added. “The defendants’ forced entry into the clinic at the outset of the invasion resulted in injury to a clinic nurse. During the blockade, one patient had to climb through a receptionist window to access the clinic, while another laid in the hallway outside of the clinic in physical distress, unable to gain access to the clinic.”
In the first week of Trump’s presidency, anti-abortion advocates have ramped up calls for Trump to pardon protesters charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which is designed to protect abortion clinics from obstruction and threats.
The 1994 law was passed during a time where clinic protests and blockades were on the rise, as was violence against abortion providers, such as the murder of Dr. David Gunn in 1993.
Abortion rights advocates slammed Trump’s pardons as evidence of his opposition to abortion access, despite his vague, contradictory statements on the issue as he attempted to find a middle ground on the campaign trail between anti-abortion allies and the majority of Americans who support abortion rights.
The Associated Press was used in this report.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/tcoAZ3D
Post a Comment