Three individuals charged with targeted attacks on pregnancy help organizations in Florida were sentenced in federal court this week.
Caleb Freestone was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for conspiring to intimidate employees of pro-life pregnancy help centers. His co-defendants, Amber Smith-Stewart and Annarella Rivera, were sentenced to 30 days in prison and 60 days of home detention.
Freestone, along with Smith-Stewart and Rivera, attacked pregnancy help centers in Florida that provide alternatives to abortion, vandalizing them 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.”
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the sentencing in a statement Thursday.
In sharing the DOJ release on the sentencing, Sanjay Patel, Director of the National Task Force on Violence Against Reproductive Health Care Providers, told leaders from life-affirming advocacy groups that, “Regardless of viewpoint, the Department is committed to prosecuting anyone who uses violence to violate access to reproductive health care.”
The attacks in the Florida case occurred between May 2022 and July 2022, according to court documents, part of the spate of pro-abortion threats, vandalism and violence directed at pregnancy help organizations, pro-life groups, and churches across the U.S. in response to the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Estimates vary and include different criteria, but there have been well over 100 attacks on life-affirming organizations in the wake of the May 2022 Dobbs leak.
Pro-life and pregnancy help advocates continue to call for the DOJ to fully address the attacks, in light of the fact that the DOJ has explicitly clarified that attacks on pregnancy help centers fall under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, and given the DOJ’s rigorous, high-profile ongoing prosecution of numerous pro-life advocates peacefully demonstrating at abortion facilities. The latter has prompted the ongoing question of unequal application of the law. Because of this there have been calls for the FACE Act’s repeal.
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Leadership from the nation’s largest network of pregnancy help welcomed the news of the three individuals’ being held accountable under the law for attacking the Florida centers.
“Finally, there is a measure of justice for at least a few of the many attacks on pregnancy centers,” said Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International.
“Such domestic terrorism should be prosecuted to the fullest extent,” he said. “Pregnancy centers are reproductive health centers according to the FACE Act, despite the denials of abortion activists.”
“Every civilized society should fully protect a woman's effort to continue her pregnancy,” said Godsey.
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The FACE Act was passed by Congress in 1994 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It “prohibits violent, threatening, damaging and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain or provide reproductive health services.”
It was traditionally understood to apply to protection of abortion facilities, but its language includes pregnancy help organizations. The DOJ pledged to Heartbeat International directly in December 2023 that it would enforce the FACE Act impartially and that its enforcement will include offenses against pregnancy help centers.
Freestone, Smith-Stewart, and Rivera pleaded guilty in June.
The DOJ statement said the three Florida defendants pleaded guilty to a civil rights conspiracy, acknowledging that their attacks were motivated by objections to the services these centers offered. They admitted they took part in the attack in the dark of night while wearing masks and dark clothing to obscure their identities.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said that “violence and threats of violence have no place in our national discourse on reproductive health” and the DOJ “is committed to protecting access to reproductive health care and prosecuting those who interfere with that right.”
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While the DOJ has taken action in a handful of cases against abortion activists since the Dobbs leak, according to a July Daily Caller report, data provided to the outlet by Republican Congressman Chip Roy’s office indicated that prosecutions of pro-life individuals represent the overwhelming number of FACE Act prosecutions, with a significant portion occurring under the current administration.
From 1994 to 2024, there were 205 cases brought against pro-life advocates and just six against abortion activists, the report said, pro-life-focused cases comprising 97% of all FACE Act cases. At least 55 of the cases were prosecuted during the Biden administration, it said, yet only five were for pregnancy center attacks. The data showed that in less than four years the Biden DOJ has accounted for over a quarter of all FACE Act prosecutions and roughly 24% of cases against pro-life advocates.
The DOJ welcomed tips on incidents of violence, threats, and obstruction under the FACE Act in the September 12 statement on the sentencing of the three Florida defendants.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
