(OSV News) -- Just as a federal prosecution wound down against pro-life activists involved in an abortion clinic blockade in Washington, a Justice Department lawsuit filed in Ohio seeks to impose fines and penalties against two pro-life entities and seven pro-life activists involved in abortion clinic blockades in that state in 2021.
In a May 20 complaint in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio Eastern Division in Cleveland, prosecutors charged the Michigan-based Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and Red Rose Rescue, an affiliated group, as well as Monica Miller of South Lyon, Michigan, who heads CPLS; Lauren Handy of Alexandria, Virginia; Laura Gies of Spring City, Pennsylvania; Clara McDonald of Brooklyn, New York; Father Fidelis Moscinski of the Bronx, New York; Jay Smith of Freeport, New York; and Audrey Whipple of Canton, Michigan, with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, on June 4 and 5, 2021.
The blockades occurred at Northeast Ohio Women's Center in Cuyahoga Falls on June 4, and at Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio's Bedford Heights Surgery Center the next day.
Prosecutors allege that Gies and McDonald entered the Cuyahoga Falls clinic under false pretenses by claiming to be seeking abortions -- the same tactic Handy used to enter Washington Surgi-Clinic in October 2020 -- and then refused to leave the clinic waiting room.
The lawsuit states that at least five patients did not make their appointments as a result. In addition, prosecutors allege McDonald "forcefully grabbed a patient's body and told her not to go through with the abortion."
The next day, a group including Handy and Smith allegedly trespassed at the Bedford Heights clinic and caused it to be shut down for nearly the entire day -- affecting 24 patients, including nine who had appointments that had to be rescheduled.
Prosecutors further allege, "When a patient asked Smith to leave the facility, Smith used physical force against the patient by pushing ... with his shoulder." They allege Miller "laid on the ground behind a patient's vehicle, then stood up next to the patient's car door, and prevented the patient from exiting their car."
The lawsuit also states that Handy "sprawled her body out on the ground" in front of the clinic entrance, refusing to move.
The suit describes an overwhelmed police department. A police supervisor on the scene stated that he hoped that arresting Handy and Miller would "calm" the participants, but it did not appear to do so, because another Red Rose Rescue participant had just jumped over the clinic's fence.
Prosecutors seek civil penalties against most defendants of $20,516 and a higher penalty of $30,868 for defendants such as Handy who have previously been convicted of violating the FACE Act. Prosecutors also are seeking damages in the amount of $5,000 for each person whose appointments were disrupted or delayed.
Handy, Father Fidelis and Smith are currently incarcerated. According to the suit, Gies has been arrested at least four times for clinic blockades and was convicted twice; Handy has been arrested at least nine times; Miller, who has headed CPLS since its formation in 2009, has been arrested at least five times and "has been convicted at least twice."
The suit adds that Father Fidelis, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, "has been arrested at least 12 times" for clinic blockades; and Whipple "was present on at least two occasions" where Red Rose Rescue participants "were arrested and charged with trespass."
"Obstructing people from accessing reproductive health care and physically obstructing providers from offering it are unlawful," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.
Thomas Cannon, senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, which is representing Handy, accused the Justice Department of seeking to impose fines and penalties "for utterly peaceable and compassionate pro-life conduct at an Ohio abortion business. These are not threatening or intimidating actions that violate the FACE Act, despite the caricature that the DOJ would like the public to believe."
The Catholic Church opposes abortion because it holds that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death. However, the church also makes clear that all advocacy for justice must use only moral means, with St. John Paul II teaching in his 1993 encyclical, "Veritatis Splendor," that a person cannot "intend directly something which of its very nature contradicts the moral order ... even though the intention is to protect or promote the welfare of an individual, of a family or of society in general."
The May 22 sentencing of Heather Idoni for her participation in the Washington Surgi-Clinic blockade leaves only one of the 10 defendants in that case not yet sentenced.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Idoni, 59, a former bookstore owner in Linden, Michigan, to serve 24 months under the FACE Act and a charge of conspiracy against rights.
She also faces sentencing in July in federal court in Nashville, Tennessee, along with five others, on FACE Act and conspiracy charges, for her participation in a blockade of an abortion clinic in Mount Juliet in that state in March 2021. They were convicted in February.
In September, Idoni is scheduled to go on trial with seven others on identical charges for blockading an abortion clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan, in August 2020. They were indicted in February 2023.
The only defendant in the District of Columbia case yet to be sentenced is Paula "Paulette" Harlow, 77, of Kingston, Massachusetts. Harlow, a Secular Franciscan, has been on home confinement since her conviction.
Handy, 30, who led the blockade, received the longest sentence, 57 months. The others convicted with Handy were given lighter sentences ranging between 21-34 months. All convictions include an additional three years of supervised release.
Copy Permalink
