This from the Catholic News Agency. And we posted this Sentences finalized on seven Washington DC prolife rescuers a couple of days ago. The "crime" - sitting on the floor, praying the rosary and singing hymns while refusing to leave. The 162 page indictment charged them with a conspiracy to deny civil rights. Among other things, the indictment said that even "having a bumper sticker" could be evidence of a conspiracy. Both pictures are of Joan Andrews.
“The rougher it gets for us the more we can rejoice that we are succeeding; no longer are we being treated so much as the privileged born, but as the discriminated against conceived child,” Bell said in a statement obtained by CNA. “We do not expect justice in the courts. Furthermore, we do not seek it for ourselves when it is being denied [to] our beloved brothers and sisters.”
She said that she views her prison sentence as “a time of prayer and reparation” for “the sin of abortion in America.”
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Bell and six other pro-lifers were sentenced this week for felony crimes involving conspiracy against rights and violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, also known as the FACE Act.
Signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, the FACE Act prohibits obstructing access to or destruction of abortion clinics, pregnancy centers, or church property. The law has been criticized by several lawmakers for being unevenly applied against pro-life activists.
The activists sentenced to prison this week are Bell, Lauren Handy, 30, John Hinshaw, 69, William Goodman, 54, Herb Geraghty, 27, Jonathan Darnel, 42, and Jean Marshall, 74. The sentences were given by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
According to the Department of Justice, the seven activists engaged in a conspiracy to create a blockade of the Washington Surgi-Clinic operated by Dr. Cesare Santangelo, an abortionist who has been accused of infanticide.
Handy (who's said in the past she's an atheist), who is the director of activism at the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), received the harshest sentence, four years and nine months, because of her role as the demonstration’s organizer.
Following her sentencing, Handy also vowed to continue her pro-life activism, saying: “I reject the use of fear and shame from outside and inside forces as a means to hold us back from loving preborn people as our equals. I reject calls to temper passionate responses to egregious acts of violence.”
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Hinshaw, 69, who has been sentenced to one year and nine months in prison, also issued a statement in which he referenced “the D.C. five,” five late-term babies whose mutilated bodies were found by PAAU outside the Washington Surgi-Clinic.
He asked why his granddaughter who was born at 32 weeks could be treasured while babies at the same stage are killed and left in the trash.
“There is a reason why today’s Gospel reading is to lay down one’s life for his friends. This is not a coincidence,” he went on. “I stand convicted, though guiltless. I take on the guilt of this judge. Accept my love for you, judge, as expiation for your guilt.”
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Chris Bell, Joan Andrews Bell’s husband of 32 years, told CNA that he has not been able to see his wife since she was convicted and imprisoned in August 2023.
According to Chris, while incarcerated at the Alexandria Detention Center in Northern Virginia, Joan has been kept away from her family. He said that despite her imprisonment, she is in “very good” spirits and is viewing her sentence as “a type of Lent.”
Now that she has been sentenced, he expects she will be moved to another prison, but he has no idea where she will be sent. In the meantime, he said that her entire family is offering up their suffering for the unborn alongside her.
“We have seven children, seven born grandchildren, and one grandchild about to be born. They are all deeply missing her,” he explained. “It’s really hard to know that your mother, your grandmother is in prison because she did something good. It’s just hard to know that she is separated from them. So, it’s hard. That’s part of our offering up to God.”
Chris Bell said they are praying not only for the unborn but also for the judge, the abortionist, and all those advancing a pro-abortion agenda.
“She knows that she’s doing this for our sins and the sins of abortion, so that keeps her focused and allows her to, even in this predicament, find God’s will and feel supported by that,” he explained.
Let us all as a nation follow Joan's example as well as all the Pro-Lifers convicted wrongly for trying to save lives... They clearly are following the example of Love set by Our Lord Jesus Christ, who though called out evil and healed all the hurt and injustice He encountered, by finally dying on the Cross and rising from the dead... Let us approach Our Lord and not be afraid to sit in front of Him and ask for His Love and Mercy... This is the only recourse which will work to end this Holocaust of abortion... Let us follow the example of these brave Pro-Lifers by begging Our Lord to convert the hearts and minds of the judge and all who are in authority who follow the Culture of Death in any way shape or form... Saint Faustina on Sept. 16th 1937 suffered the pain of abortion for the 3rd time, she nor the doctors knew from or how the pains came about... Our Lord let her know the final time she suffered the pains in order to make reparation for the sins of abortive mothers... Poland which was considered the abortion capitol of Europe, abortion went down to almost zero by the year 2000... Let us ask and pray for the intercession of Our Blessed Mother, Saint Joseph and Saint Faustina for an end to abortion and that adoption become the law of the land, no questions asked and easily attainable... In Christ's Love, always... Peter Lepre, Envoy For Mercy(MIC)
Posted by: Peter Lepre | May 20, 2024 at 09:28 PM