Three abortion-rights activists were sentenced to prison for vandalizing pro-life pregnancy centers in Florida, the first time activists have been slapped with jail time since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Caleb Freestone was sentenced to one year and one day after pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge. His co-defendants, Annabella Rivera and Amber Smith-Stewart, received lighter sentences of 30 days in prison followed by 60 days of home detention.
These attacks targeted three pregnancy centers between May and July 2022, involving vandalism. These centers offer free services such as ultrasounds and counseling but do not provide abortions. The incidents reflect growing tensions surrounding reproductive rights in the United States after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson.
U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg emphasized that the defendants conspired to threaten providers of reproductive health care, highlighting the federal protections in place for these services.
Higher Ground has the story:
Three abortion-rights activists were sentenced to prison Thursday for vandalizing pro-life pregnancy centers in Florida, the first pro-choice culprits to receive jail time after more than 90 attacks on anti-abortion facilities since the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Caleb Freestone was sentenced to one year and one day in prison after pleading guilty in June to a criminal civil-rights conspiracy against the pro-life centers, which provide free services such as ultrasounds, counseling, baby clothes and diapers — but not abortions.
His co-defendants, Annabella Rivera and Amber Smith-Stewart, were given lighter sentences. Each will serve 30 days in prison followed by 60 days in home detention, according to the Justice Department.
“These defendants conspired to threaten and intimidate providers offering reproductive health care,” said U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg for the Middle District of Florida. “Federal law protects these providers and those who seek their services. My office will continue its work to protect access to reproductive health care and federally prosecute those interfering with that right.”
Vandals hit three Florida centers from May to July 2022: the South Broward Pregnancy Help Center in Hollywood; the Life Choice Pregnancy Center in Winter Haven, and the Heartbeat of Miami Pregnancy Help Medical Clinic in Hialeah.
The attacks included spray-painting messages on the buildings such as “Jane’s Revenge,” the name of the shadowy abortion-rights group that terrorized pro-life centers following the May 2022 leak of the Supreme Court’s draft majority opinion decision in Dobbs v. Jackson overturning Roe.
“The defendants admitted they participated in the attack in the dark of night, and while wearing masks and dark clothing to obscure their identities, spray painted the facilities with threatening messages, including ‘If abortions aren’t safe than niether [sic] are you,’ ‘YOUR TIME IS UP!!,’ ‘WE’RE COMING for U’ and ‘We are everywhere,’” said the Justice Department press release.
The three activists, along with a fourth defendant, Gabriella Oropesa, agreed in July to pay restitution and stay away from the pro-life pregnancy centers, part of a deal to settle a state-filed civil lawsuit over violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
The three also apologized, although Rivera expressed disbelief Thursday at the process.
“I never thought that the act of spray-painting a fake ’clinic’ would result in the FBI violently raiding my house or that I would become a pawn in the fight for a person’s right to bodily autonomy — something an overwhelming majority of citizens in the United States believe in,” she said in a press release.
The Civil Liberties Defense Center in Eugene, Oregon, which represented the defendants, characterized the prison sentences as overkill.
“The crimes these defendants have admitted to and took responsibility for would normally result in a state or municipal court misdemeanor for graffiti,” said the center release. “Caleb Freestone’s longer sentence was attributed to minor activism [because] he had been arrested for wheat-pasting flyers on private buildings — the charges were later dismissed but the court heavily punished him for it.”