The three were charged with felony crimes involving conspiracy against rights and violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, also known as the FACE Act. According to the Department of Justice, the three activists engaged in a conspiracy to create a blockade of an abortion clinic.
This comes nearly nine months after Bell and eight other pro-life activists were convicted on felony charges of conspiracy against rights and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for their involvement in an October 2020 rescue at the Washington Surgi-Clinic run by Dr. Cesare Santangelo.
According to a previous DOJ statement, the activists involved in the rescue used “physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, and interfere with the clinic’s employees and a patient because they were providing or obtaining reproductive health services.”
The DOJ also said the activists “forcefully entered the clinic and set about blockading two clinic doors using their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes.”
On Tuesday three other activists — Lauren Handy, 30, John Hinshaw, 69, and William Goodman, 54 — also received sentences ranging from nearly five years to just under two years for the same demonstration. Handy received the harshest sentence, four years and nine months, for her role as the organizer.
Martin Cannon, an attorney with the Thomas More Society, which represented Handy, told CNA that they will likely be appealing “most if not all” of the sentences. Any appeals in these cases would go to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
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