Feb. 23 (UPI) — Eight anti-abortion activists have been charged with federal civil rights offenses for blocking a Michigan reproductive health clinics in 2020 and again in 2021.
The federal three-count indictment was announced Wednesday, charging the eight defendants with engaging in a civil rights conspiracy and with violating Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, better know as the FACE Act, which prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive healthcare.
The court document states that Calvin Zastrow, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Caroline Davis, Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Eva Edl and Eva Zastrow conspired with one another to create a blockade around the Northland Family Planning Clinic in Sterling Heights, Mich., on Aug. 27, 2020.
Prosecutors accuse the defendants of physically barring patients and employees from entering the facility by “sitting and standing” in front of its doors.
Curry and Gallagher live-streamed the blockade via their phones on social media, during which Curry is heard to have said they were “outside of the murder mill to save children,” according to the court document.
The federal prosecutors said the defendants prevented a patient from entering the building who said she was there for a birth control appointment, and when an employee tried to help the patient gain access through an employe entrance Eva Zastrow and Davis sat in front of the door to block them from entering.
After officers with the Sterling Heights Police Department arrived on the scene, the defendants are accused of refusing to move and engaging “the officers in conversation as a delay tactic,” the indictment reads.
“[The] longer they talk with us, the better the opportunity we have to see women and children rescued,” Gallagher is quoted as having said in the charging document. “And that’s what obstructing the door of an abortion clinic is about and why it’s so successful. We are here blocking access so the doors can’t open.”
After the officers warned that they would be arrested, Edl refused to move, remarking, “You can arrest us, you can do whatever you want, but I will be back, wherever there is a clinic open.”
The charging document accuses Edl and Idoni of also participating in a similar action on April 16, 2021, at another women’s health clinic.
Several of the defendants have been previously charged by the Justice Department for violating the FACE Act.
In October, Gallagher, Idoni, Calvin Zastrow, Eva Zastrow, Edl and others were indicted.
The indictment states Gallagher used social media to promote anti-abortion events scheduled for March 4-7, 2021, in Nashville, Tenn.
According to prosecutors, they held a blockade the defendants called a “rescue” at Mount Juliet’s Carafem health Center Clinic, which they live-streamed online.
Idoni also appears to a have been among a group of nine anti-abortion activists charged in March with conspiring to create a blockade at a Washington, D.C. health clinic.
Prosecutors said they entered the clinic “and set about blocking two clinic doors using their bodies, furniture, chains and ropes.” The alleged crime was also live-streamed.
The incidents happened amid an increase in violence targeting reproductive health clinics. The National Abortion Federation reported that violence and disruptions targeting abortion facilities had significantly increased in 2021 compared to a year prior.
Last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray announced a $25,000 reward for information on those responsible for a series of attacks and threats targeting health service facilities nationwide.
On Jan. 24, two people were charged with participating in a conspiracy that threatened several reproductive health facilities in Florida.
The next day, police arrested and charged a man for setting fire to a Illinois Planned Parenthood.
Last year, the Justice Department also filed a slew of cases against dozens of people for similar offenses.