President Biden is Indicting More Anti-Abortion Extremists Than any President in History


     Between 1994 and 2000, President Bill Clinton, who signed the FACE Act into law in May 1994, arrested 60 individuals for violating it; a total of 71 individuals were prosecuted in 46 cases and 17 civil suits were filed between 1994 and 2005. This law, signed to combat violent crimes against abortion providers and attacks on clinics, makes it a crime punishable by up to a year in federal prison to obstruct or attempt to obstruct an abortion clinic. Most often, it is accompanied by other, more serious felony charges, like conspiracy or communicating terrorist threats. During the Bush administration, less than 20 were indicted, and the rate during the Obama administration didn't get much better; by the time Trump took office, only a handful would be indicted over the course of four years.

     President Biden served in the U.S. Senate during the Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, and Bush, Jr. administrations before serving as VP under Barack Obama. Carter and Clinton were the two Democratic presidents during Biden's stint in the Senate; during the Carter administration, he was a freshman senator who focused on the SALT II Treaty. That leaves the Clinton administration as the time he was most active in foreign affairs and legislative policy. He was a driving force behind America's response to the atrocities in the Balkans, which manifested themselves in the Dayton Agreement in 1995 and the NATO Bombing of Kosovo in 1999; and the arms control policy of the administration, including the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. He helped shepherd through the Brady Act, Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, Assault Weapons Ban, Violence Against Women Act, and the FACE Act (as well as the nominations of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the Supreme Court and an unprecedented rate of judicial nominations to other federal courts) during the 103rd Congress from 1993 to 1995, when Democrats had a government trifecta. I've already highlighted how he is revitalizing underutilized laws. It makes sense that the aforementioned laws would be those at the top of his mind, and the FACE Act is no exception.

     Since taking office, President Biden has arrested 13 individuals for five separate crimes against abortion clinics, a rate not seen since the Clinton administration. At this rate, he is on track to indict more anti-abortion extremists than any president in history, something especially important as (even though violent attacks on abortion clinics have declined drastically since the FACE Act became law) abortion access is under unprecedented attack and domestic extremism, especially by the right, rises. Their arrests, indictments, convictions, and sentences (or acquittals/dismissal of charges) will be updated as they occur in the interactive list below:
  1. Lauren Handy (CONVICTED; sentencing May 14th)
  2. Jonathan Darnel (CONVICTED; sentencing May 15th)
  3. Jay Smith (Pleaded guilty; sentenced to 10 months in prison)
  4. Paulette Harlow (CONVICTED)
  5. Jean Marshall (CONVICTED; sentencing May 15th)
  6. John Hinshaw (CONVICTED; sentencing May 14th)
  7. Heather Idoni (2nd indictment) (3rd and 4th indictment) (CONVICTED; sentencing May 14th)
  8. William Goodman (CONVICTED; sentencing May 14th)
  9. Joan Bell (CONVICTED; sentencing May 15th)
  10. Herb Geraghty (CONVICTED; sentencing May 15th)
  11. Richard Royden Chamberlin (Pleaded guilty; sentenced to 30 months in prison and $42,663 restitution)
  12. Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Brime (Pleaded guilty; sentenced to one year in prison)
  13. Devin Friedrick Kruse (Pleaded guilty; awaiting sentencing)
  14. Daniel Courney (Convicted, fined $5,000, and banned from the clinic as well as from blocking other clinics)
  15. Mark Houck (Acquitted in January 2023)
  16. Christopher Moscinski (Convicted; sentenced to six months in prison)
  17. Michael Barron
  18. Chester Gallagher (2nd indictment)
  19. Calvin Zastrow (2nd indictment)
  20. Coleman Boyd
  21. Caroline Davis (2nd indictment)
  22. Paul Vaughn
  23. Dennis Green
  24. Eva Edl (2nd and 3rd indictment)
  25. Eva Zastrow (2nd indictment)
  26. James Zastrow
  27. Paul Place
  28. Joshua Brereton (Pleaded guilty; sentenced to five years in prison)
  29. Mark Thomas Reno (Died before case could be adjudicated; DOJ suing to seize his assets)
  30. Bevelyn Beatty Williams (Convicted; awaiting sentencing)
  31. Edmee Chavannes (Acquitted in February 2024)
  32. Tyler W. Massengill (Pleaded guilty; sentenced to 10 years in prison and $1.45 million restitution)
  33. Joel Curry
  34. Justin Phillips
  35. Nishith Tharaka Vandebona (Pleaded guilty; sentenced to 18 months in prison)
  36. Chance Brannon (Pleaded guilty; sentenced to nine years in prison and $1,000 restitution)
  37. Tibet Ergul (Pleaded guilty; sentencing May 30th)
  38. Xavier Batten (Pleaded guilty; sentencing May 15th)
  39. Philip J. Buyno (Pleaded guilty; sentenced to five years in prison)

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