Sentencing delayed for pro-life rescuers convicted of FACE Act violations

A Michigan federal judge has temporarily stayed sentencing in a case against seven pro-life activists who were found guilty on federal charges this summer after taking part in a pro-life rescue in the state.

According to a report from the Daily Wire, “Judge Matthew Leitman ordered Tuesday that the FACE Act and felony conspiracy case against the pro-life activists be paused until after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.”

The pro-life activists included Joel Curry, Eva Edl, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Justin Phillips, Calvin Zastrow, and Eva Zastrow.

What is the FACE Act?

The rescuers were indicted in 2023 under the “Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (F.A.C.E.),” a draconian piece of legislation signed into law by former President Bill Clinton in 1994. The text of the law is available here, and, in part, “prohibits the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services.” Stiff fines and penalties often apply to anyone convicted under the charges.

The FACE Act came into effect during a season when the pro-life group Operation Rescue was having an impact in closing abortion facilities by using non-violent peaceful protest to intervene on behalf of innocent preborn children in the same spirit as the Civil Rights movement.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the indictment alleged that on Aug. 27, 2020, the aforementioned activists “engaged in a conspiracy to prevent the Sterling Heights clinic from providing, and patients there from receiving, reproductive health services. According to the indictment, Gallagher advertised the Sterling Heights clinic blockade on social media, and he and Curry livestreamed the incident. The defendants convened at a location near the Sterling Heights clinic, where an uncharged co-conspirator who recorded the incident announced that the defendants were ‘going over to stand in front of the door’ and ‘interpose.’”

The indictment also alleges that pro-life rescuers “violated the FACE Act by using physical obstruction to intimidate and interfere with the Sterling Heights clinic’s employees and patients, because the clinic’s employees were providing, and the patients were seeking, reproductive health services.”

Found Guilty

This past summer, as Live Action News reported that these activists had been found guilty on federal charges related to an August 2020 rescue at Northland Family Planning Clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan.

According to the DOJ, the pro-lifers were convicted of a “felony conspiracy against rights and a Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act offense,” and “Two defendants were convicted of a second FACE Act offense arising out of a blockade of a reproductive health care clinic in Saginaw, Michigan.”

Those two included Eva Edl (an elderly survivor of a communist prison camp in Eastern Europe) and Heather Idoni.

“The seven were prosecuted by the Biden administration, which has been using the conspiracy against rights charge, originally designed for the Ku Klux Klan, to go after pro-life activists. They face over 10 years in prison and hundreds of thousands in fines upon sentencing,” reported The Daily Wire.

As Live Action News previously noted:

The conspiracy statute under which the activists have been charged is 18 U.S.C. § 241, which “makes it unlawful for two or more persons to agree to injure, threaten, or intimidate a person in the United States in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States or because of his or her having exercised such a right. Unlike most conspiracy statutes, §241 does not require, as an element, the commission of an overt act.”

Temporary Reprieve

Daily Wire reported that “Sentencing had not yet been scheduled due to several pending motions from the defense to dismiss the convictions that Leitman has not yet ruled on. These motions will further be delayed due to the judge’s latest order… Leitman’s order followed a status conference on the case on Monday in Detroit. On Wednesday, he ordered lawyers for the defendants to appear for the status hearing on March 25.”

A court document in the case obtained by Live Action News reads in part, “As further discussed on the record, the Court will conduct another status conference during the week of March 24, 2025, to receive a report from the Government trial team as to whether there has been any change in the Government’s position with respect to the continuation of this case and/or with respect to the positions expected to be advanced by the Defendants in their post-trial motions” (emphasis added).

“If the Government trial teams finds itself able to provide such a report before the week of March 24, 2025, the Government trial team may inform the Court, and the Court will work to schedule the status conference to be held before the week of March 24, 2025,” the document also states.

The temporary reprieve is likely due to the fact that President-elect Donald J. Trump has signaled that he plans to pardon pro-life activists convicted and sentenced under these harsh federal laws.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]