Woman Charged in Two Anti-Choice Crimes as DOJ Ramps Up FACE Act Enforcement

     With SCOTUS' disastrous decision this past summer, a public health crisis was created in our nation. While the president cannot do everything unilaterally, there is quite a bit he, and the executive branch more broadly, can do to protect abortion rights. One way is to arrest the anti-abortion extremists that permeate our communities, and, this year, the Justice Department is prioritizing doing just that.

     Good and bad, criminal justice reform is the defining legacy of the Clinton administration, and the FACE Act he signed into law while President Biden was head of the Senate Judiciary Committee is a definite "good." This law makes it a federal misdemeanor to block access to an abortion clinic and, in some cases, a federal felony to conspire to do so. President Clinton prosecuted 60 of these cases during his time in the White House while Presidents Bush and Obama each prosecuted only about 20 and President Trump just a handful. Under President Biden, this has started to change.

     Earlier this year, the DOJ made a startling arrest: anti-choice activist Lauren Handy was found to have numerous fetuses in her freezer, and she, along with eight others, was charged for blocking access to an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C. This was the first of two mass arrests this year under the FACE Act. 11 people were arrested last week for storming and occupying an abortion clinic in suburban Nashville in spring 2021. 22 people were arrested on state charges on site, including a disturbing number of minors. (For all the Right's talk about "indoctrination," I can verify that attendance at anti-choice rallies almost always starts in childhood.) The minors were charged as juveniles with misdemeanor trespass crimes, while the adults were charged with trespass and disorderly conduct as well as contributing to the delinquency of these minors. Federal charges came later, with eight of these 11 being from states like Michigan, South Carolina, and Mississippi. Among these 11 were three members of the same family, and seven of the 11 are also charged with felony civil rights conspiracy. These two acts alone resulted in 20 federal charges against 19 people.

     20 against 19? Yes. In a glaring display of just what a nuisance anti-choice demonstrators really are (with a man recently convicted of assaulting law enforcement at the Capitol, David Mehaffie, having been one of the defendants charged by the Clinton DOJ in the 1990s), one of the 11 charged in Tennessee was also one of the nine charged in Washington, D.C. 61-year-old Heather Idoni, of Linden, Michigan, now faces two felonies and two misdemeanors carrying up to 22 years in prison for two separate actions against two separate abortion clinics in two separate jurisdictions that are not her home state. I would be surprised if she doesn't have more state or federal charges pending.

     As mentioned before, these 19 people do not constitute all of the 26 arrests made by the DOJ since President Biden took office. In recent weeks, in particular, Attorney General Garland has ramped up efforts to hold these extremists accountable, just as he is working to hold the Capitol insurrectionists and President Trump accountable alongside bad cops, those who threaten election workers, and countless other threats to American rule of law. 

     On September 19th, Devin Friedrick Kruse of Oregon pleaded guilty to twice vandalizing a Planned Parenthood and is awaiting sentencing. On September 23rd, a Pennsylvania man named Mark Houck was charged for shoving an elderly clinic escort to the ground. On September 29th, Franciscan friar Christopher Moscinski was arrested for using bicycle racks, chains, and glued locks as well as his own body to seal the entrance to a Planned Parenthood on Long Island. On October 3rd, New Jersey missionary and anti-LGBT2SQIA+ hate criminal Daniel Courney pled guilty to a misdemeanor for flying a drone over an abortion clinic and physically interfering with clinic escorts and was barred from nearing the clinic or from blocking any other clinics as well as fined $5,000. On October 4th, Michael Barron was arrested for vandalizing a Planned Parenthood in Chicago.

     Earlier this year, an Ohio man, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Brime, was convicted of calling in a threat to a clinic and sentenced to a year in prison. Also facing charges is Richard Royden Chamberlin, a director who repeatedly fired a BB gun at an abortion clinic in Pasadena and is now charged with three FACE Act violations as well as one count each of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; the five charges carry a combined maximum of 23 years in prison.

     In less than two years, 26 arrests have been made, more than Presidents Obama and Trump made combined over the course of 12 years. Many of the arrests recently have been for incidents that happened over a year ago, making it likely that arrests will continue to be made at a relatively quick pace. However, our fight against anti-choice terrorists is just beginning: President Biden is on track to arrest more anti-abortion extremists than any president in U.S. history, and, if he is reelected, should be able to arrest more than all prior presidents combined.