Some of the anti-abortion activists pardoned by President Donald Trump are already planning a new wave of civil disobedience, according to a report.
The president issued pardons in January to activists who had broken into and blocked access to abortion clinics.
The anti-abortion group LiveAction recently held an online event, where a number of the activists released from federal prison said they would take up their efforts to close the remaining clinics available in the U.S., according to Politico.
Herb Geraghty, from Pittsburgh, entered a Washington abortion clinic in 2020 to stop its operations and urge patients not to end their pregnancies. He served 17 months of a 27-month sentence before getting a pardon that he tried to reject.
“Get out there, whether it’s outside the clinic or inside, or wherever you need to be to actually prevent unborn children’s lives from being taken,” Geraghty said during the event, Politico reported.
He told the outlet that he was “traumatized” by his time in prison but that it had been worth it and that he’s still “committed to nonviolent direct action in service of the pro-life cause.”
Following the pardons, the FBI and Department of Justice dropped a number of investigations into threats against abortion clinics. A new memo was also issued outlining how enforcement against such threats would decrease. Congress is also moving to repeal the legislation that got Geraghty and others in legal jeopardy. Trump had branded himself as “the most pro-life” president in history.
“There’s actual lives being saved every minute you are committing the crime,” Geraghty told Politico regarding the activists unlawfully entering abortion clinics. “Every minute that a rescuer is inside the building, they are not killing babies.”
Others who received pardons said they are planning on entering clinics stealthily or by force to “rescue” fetuses. New guidance from the Department of Justice states that officials shouldn’t discipline such actions apart from under “extraordinary circumstances.” Those include “significant aggravating factors, such as death, serious bodily harm, or serious property damage.”
Activists are now pushing for state laws to give them similar rights.
“Get out of our way and let citizens defend children in a way that maybe you aren’t willing to do,” Jonathan Darnel said during the event. He was sentenced to 34 months in prison for “use of force and physical obstruction” at a Washington abortion clinic in 2020.
“If you’re a Christian police officer, a pro-life police officer, you need to commit in your heart not to arrest rescuers that are defending children, leave them be, even if it costs you your job,” he added. “If you’re not willing to protect the children yourself, let us do it.”
Geraghty, Darnel and others received time behind bars for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The Trump administration has also taken action to dismiss with prejudice charges against activists blocking clinics in Ohio, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, according to Politico. Dismissing with prejudice means that another administration can’t bring the charges back up.
One individual shut himself in the bathroom at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philadelphia for more than three hours, forcing the rescheduling of almost 50 appointments, many of which were not for abortion services. Another group had their charges dropped after pretending to be patients to get into a clinic in northeast Ohio where they disrupted more than two dozen appointments.
Federal court records state they “forcefully grabbed a patient’s body and told her not to go through with the abortion.”
The FBI has told some clinics that they’re dropping investigations into threats against them.
A Preferred Women’s Health Center operates several clinics in North Carolina and Georgia. Its executive director, Calla Halle, told Politico that the new policy from the Department of Justice will be “a catalyst for more protesting and more aggressive actions.”
“Protesters seem to know that they’re not going to be held accountable,” she added.
“The lying, the harassment, the intimidation, it’s definitely amping up,” said Halle.
