Young mother sentenced to over 3 years for pro-life protest
Bevelyn Beatty Williams was sentenced last month to three years and five months in prison for her protest outside an abortion facility in June 2020.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act makes it a federal crime “to use force with the intent to injure, intimidate and interfere with anyone” who provides abortion services.
In 2020, Williams began preaching the Gospel outside an abortion center in Manhattan. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), she also blocked the entrance to the facility. When an employee tried to open the door while Wililams was leaning against it, the worker’s hand was injured.
Last month, a jury sentenced the 33-year-old mother to 41 months in prison for violating the FACE Act, a sentence Williams hopes to appeal.
“I was persecuted as a Christian standing for my beliefs when it comes to life,” Williams wrote on her GiveSendGo fundraising page. “This is devastating news. Not only is this bond extensive for the accused crime, but she made it very clear in the courtroom that she was going to make an example out of me.”
“She told me before sentencing me that | was young and that I would not be defined by my sentence, before making a conscious decision to take me away from my two-year-old daughter for three years. I have 60 days to appeal my case and fight for my freedom and I need as much help as I can get!”
A clampdown on life
Williams is one of many pro-life Americans being imprisoned by the federal government for interfering with abortion. The DOJ uses the FACE Act to prosecute pro-life protesters such as Cal Zastrow, who was recently sentenced to six months in prison.
Zastrow was one of 11 protesters who were charged with violating the FACE Act by protesting at the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee on March 5, 2021. They reportedly sang hymns, prayed, and at one point blocked the doorway. No one was injured.
During his sentencing hearing, Zastrow declared that “children are a blessing from God” and read passages from the Bible. Judge Aleta Trauger made it known she was not impressed by Zastrow’s “religious fervor” and said she did not need a sermon.
In May, 75-year-old Paulette Harlow was sentenced to two years in prison, also for violating the FACE Act, after she participated in a 2020 protest at an abortion center in Washington, DC. After the sentencing, federal judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly taunted Harlow, who suffers from health issues. The judge told her to “make an effort to remain alive” in prison because that is a “tenet of [Harlow’s] religion.”
Harlow was one of 11 others who were recently sentenced to prison for protesting at an abortion center. Harlow’s co-defendant, Lauren Handy, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison and three years of supervised release.
That same month, the DOJ brought a lawsuit against seven pro-life taxpayers and their organizations, Red Rose Rescue and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society. The complaint accused the defendants of violating the FACE Act.
Raiding families’ homes
The DOJ also appears to make a point of raiding the homes of pro-life Americans who have many children. One of Zastrow’s fellow protesters, Paul Vaughn, is a father of 11 children. The FBI arrested him by raiding his home at gunpoint in front of his children.
In another instance, over 15 FBI agents converged on the house of Mark Houck, a pro-life father of seven, in an early morning in September 2021. They pounded on the door with their guns drawn and shouted for him to come out. He was arrested and charged for violating the FACE Act.
Turning the other cheek on pro-abortion terrorism
In the meantime, the Biden administration has been turning a blind eye to domestic terrorists who attack pro-life Americans and centers.
Pro-abortion groups launched a wave of violence immediately after a draft of the US Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked on May 2, 2022. The court ruled that states, not the federal government, should have the power to permit or prohibit abortions. The ruling effectively overturned Roe v. Wade.
Within 24 hours of the draft being leaked, pro-abortion domestic terror groups like Jane’s Revenge and Ruth Sent Us declared “war” on pro-life Americans. They began attacking pregnancy centers — facilities which help women give birth instead of committing feticide — and demanded that all pro-life groups disband within 30 days. Ruth Sent Us instructed activists to storm Catholic churches during Mass and vowed to”burn the Eucharist.” Jane’s Revenge claimed credit for setting fire to Wisconsin Family Action, a pro-life center in Madison, Wisconsin.
Five arrests for 90 violent attacks
Since then, there have been at least 90 such attacks on pro-life Americans, according to a report by Catholic Vote. These have included firebombings, arson, destruction, and vandalism. Some pregnancy centers had their locks glued so that staff could not enter the premises. Employees at other centers had their cars keyed. In one instance, an 84-year-old woman was shot while distributing pro-life materials. Two elderly men were badly beaten while protesting outside an abortion facility.
There have only been about five reported arrests made in connection with those attacks and the FBI did not issue a public request for information until six months into the wave of violence.
