Two more indicted in spray-paint attack at Winter Haven pregnancy care center

The Ledger
·2 min read
Graffiti was spray-painted on the building of LifeChoice Pregnancy Center in Winter Haven in the days after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision last year. The vandalism cited Jane's Revenge, the name for a collective of abortion-rights supporters that has taken responsibility for damage at other centers around the country.
Graffiti was spray-painted on the building of LifeChoice Pregnancy Center in Winter Haven in the days after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision last year. The vandalism cited Jane's Revenge, the name for a collective of abortion-rights supporters that has taken responsibility for damage at other centers around the country.

Two more South Florida residents have been charged in connection with threatening messages painted last year at a pregnancy center in Winter Haven.

A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Florida returned indictments against Gabriella Victoria Oropesa of Cooper City and Annarella Rivera of Hialeah for their alleged roles in the damage to the LifeChoice Pregnancy Center in June.

The superseding indictment charges Oropesa, 24, and Rivera, 46, with violations of the FACE Act, a federal law that protects reproductive health-care facilities and places of worship. The Department of Justice had previously announced indictments of two other South Florida residents, Caleb Freestone and Amber Smith-Stewart, on federal charges related to the vandalism.

The new indictment says that the four engaged in a conspiracy to prevent employees of reproductive health services facilities from providing those services. As part of the conspiracy, the defendants allegedly targeted pregnancy resource facilities and vandalized those facilities with spray-painted threats, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida said in a news release.

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The indictment says that Rivera, Freestone and Smith-Stewart violated the federal law by using threats of force to intimidate and interfere with the employees of the facility because those employees were providing or seeking to provide reproductive health services.

Vandals painted such phrases as “YOUR TIME IS UP!!” and “WE’RE COMING for U” overnight last June at LifeChoice Pregnancy Center, shortly after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that nullified the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, eliminating the nationwide right to an abortion. The defendants also vandalized pregnancy centers in Hollywood and Hialeah, the DOJ said in a news release.

If convicted of the offenses, Rivera, Freestone and Smith-Stewart each face up to 12 years in prison, three years of supervised release and fines of up to $350,000, the release said. Oropesa faces up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

LifeChoice Pregnancy Center provides pregnancy testing and other services but doesn't offer or refer for abortions.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Two more indicted for painted threats at Winter Haven pregnancy center