DOJ Charges Eleven Pro-Life Activists for Blocking Abortion Clinic
The Department of Justice on Wednesday charged eleven pro-life protesters with violating federal law against blocking abortion clinics.
Seven of the demonstrators were charged with conspiracy against rights secured by the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which prohibits obstructing the entrance to an abortion facility, while the other four were charged with violating the legislation, according to a summary of the indictment.
The FBI also reportedly raided the home of Chester Gallagher, the organizer of the protest and one of the accused conspirators, on Tuesday with guns drawn, pro-life activist AJ Hurley told Live Action News. He said Gallagher’s neighbors told him Gallagher was out of state when the FBI showed up and entered his home.
Gallagher allegedly advertised a series of pro-life events on social media for March 2021 in the Nashville area. The indictment claims he and other coordinators recruited participants to travel to the city and erect a blockade, which Gallagher allegedly called a “rescue,” at Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mount Juliet, Tenn., to prevent pregnant women from pursuing abortions.
A livestream of the stand-in shows activists chanting and singing prayer up the stairs to and along the hallway outside the abortion clinic, located in an office complex. Police officers eventually appeared in the video urging them to take their protest outside to the sidewalk.
“This is not allowed guys. Asking you to leave the property or I will call the police,” a security guard can be heard saying. The indictment alleges that the group prevented a patient and an employee from entering the facility. After they refused to leave the premises, the activists were reportedly escorted away to jail by police on misdemeanor trespassing charges. One pro-life activist wrote on March 6, 2021, on Facebook the claim that one “rescuer” was held on $1,000 bail, six, including Gallagher, on $1,500 bail, and two on $2,500 bail.
These eleven individuals, the DOJ said Wednesday, “aided and abetted by one another, used force and physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, and interfere with employees of the clinic and a patient who was seeking reproductive health services.”
Hurley told Live Action News that the FBI reportedly recently called a few of the charged individuals to tell them they had arrest warrants and that they must turn themselves in. If convicted, those charged with conspiracy could face up to eleven years in prison and fines up to $250,000, the DOJ confirmed.
The escalation in the Nashville case comes after the FBI arrested and raided the home of pro-life activist Mark Houck for alleged infringements of the FACE Act, stemming from an incident in October 2021, when he allegedly pushed a pro-abortion activist outside of an abortion clinic. Houck maintains that the man was the aggressor who was repeatedly using obscene language and invading his son’s personal space, according to Houck’s wife.
