Michigan Jury Finds Seven Guilty Of FACE Act Violation

The Department of Justice (DOJ) continues to hound pro-life activists who go to abortion businesses and try to convince pregnant women not to kill their babies.

A Detroit, Michigan, jury found seven pro-lifers guilty Tuesday of engaging in a civil rights conspiracy and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for standing and sitting in front of the door of the Northland Family Planning Clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan, Aug. 27, 2020.

The 1994 Clinton-era FACE Act makes it a federal crime to intimidate or interfere with someone getting an abortion. Combined with the conspiracy charge the DOJ has added to recent FACE charges, the combined convictions carry a penalty of up to 11 years and up to $250,000 in fines. In this case, the conspiracy was about posting and live-streaming the group’s actions on social media.

According to the DOJ indictment, those convicted in this case sat in front of the abortion business’ door and refused to move when women tried to get inside. Later, the police asked them to move and they did not move until they were arrested.  

Guided by faith, those convicted in this case say the Bible specifically tells them to act on behalf of voiceless babies scheduled for abortion, citing Proverbs 24:11, “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.” 

The convicted include Calvin Zastrow, a Michigan preacher, and his daughter Eva Zastrow, 26, a missionary worker; and Chester Gallagher of Tennessee, a former police officer who left his job and joined the pro-life movement when he realized they were trying to stop a “murder in progress,” as he often says.

Gallagher presented defense arguments on his own behalf but was aided by Thomas More Society attorneys.

“Yet again, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice has decided to characterize the actions of peaceful pro-lifers as a felony ‘Conspiracy Against Rights,’ punishable by over a decade in federal prison. After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, we believe the FACE Act to be unconstitutional, and we will continue to advocate on behalf of peaceful pro-life citizens like Chet Gallagher, Lauren Handy, and Paul Vaughn, who have been targeted with harsh prosecution by this Department of Justice,” Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Steve Crampton said in a statement. “We also believe that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Fischer v. United States confirms that the Department of Justice’s novel strategy to inflict maximize pain upon peaceful pro-lifers by adding a charge of felony Conspiracy Against Rights cannot be squared with the law and we stand ready to make that case.”

Also found guilty were Justin Phillips, a missionary, and Joel Curry, 31, an evangelist, both of Michigan.

“Apparently there were 40 babies scheduled to die that day, at least six to nine women came back. That means at least 30 women had reconsidered,” Curry told The Federalist in a phone interview after the guilty verdict. He was grateful they were not taken immediately to prison, as has happened in previous FACE cases. The convicted will be sentenced at a later date.

Heather Idoni, 59, a mother of 15, including 10 adopted from Ukraine, was also found guilty. Idoni, a former Christian bookstore owner, is currently held in federal prison for a previous FACE Act conviction in Washington, D.C.

Also convicted was Eva Edl, 89, of South Carolina.

Both Edl and Idoni believe they may die before being released from prison. If they are sentenced to the full 11 years, Edl would be 100 at the end of the sentence. These two have another FACE violation for blocking a door at a Saginaw, Michigan, abortion mill on April 16, 2021.

As a child, Edl was taken by train cattle car as a prisoner to the Gakova concentration camp in Yugoslavia, where she faced starvation and was surrounded by death, but ultimately was able to escape.

If people in her town would have stood on the train tracks to block the train and spoken up about the children being taken to the camp, Edl has said in interviews, the government might have stopped sooner. Today she considers sitting in front of the doors of abortion businesses her way of sitting on the train tracks.

Cracking Down on FACE

Most of the pro-life activists in this case have been going to abortion businesses for years and have often been successful at persuading women to save their babies’ lives. Many offer women continued help after they decide to continue their pregnancy.

None had been charged with FACE in previous years, but charges started coming after the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe. v. Wade. Soon President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing his administration to address possible “heightened safety and security risks related to the provision of reproductive healthcare services.”

In July 2022, the DOJ announced it was forming the Reproductive Rights Task Force, listing enforcement of the FACE Act as one of its goals.

Since the formation of the task force, the DOJ has reached back in time and charged pro-lifers with the FACE Act multiple times. Calvin Zastrow, Eva Zastrow, Heather Idoni, Eva Edl, and Chester Gallagher were previously found guilty in January for praying, singing church hymns, blocking the door, and talking to women at a Tennessee abortion mill in March 2021. They were not charged until October 2022. By the time they were charged, Tennessee had outlawed abortion except in rare cases, and the abortion mill where they prayed has suspended its operations.

Earlier this week U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray questioning the DOJ’s weaponization of the FACE Act against pro-life Americans.

 “Since January 2021, the Civil Rights Division has charged 24 FACE Act cases against 55 defendants, with only two of these cases — consisting of five defendants — originating from attacks on pregnancy resource centers. This data is particularly troubling in light of the fact that there have been at least 90 individual cases of attacks on pro-life organizations and pregnancy resource centers since the May 2022 leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion for the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.”

But at a recent hearing, Wray testified it was the opposite: that more abortion-related violent extremism investigations focused on violence against pro-life facilities.

Roy’s letter requests that documents proving Wray’s claim be provided to the Committee on the Judiciary by Sept. 2.

Former President Donald Trump said in June that if elected, he would let those charged with the FACE Act out of prison.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.