Chester Gallagher

Chester Gallagher, 73, of Lebanon, Tennessee, was the acknowledged organizer and leader of the March 5, 2021 blockade of the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Beginning in February 2021, Gallagher used Facebook to promote a series of anti-abortion events in the Nashville area, advertising the planned blockade as a "rescue." At trial, evidence showed that he and co-conspirators traveled from out of state to participate, and that Gallagher personally stalled the Mount Juliet Police Department through phony negotiations while his co-defendants physically blocked the clinic's entry doors. He was convicted at trial on January 30, 2024, alongside five co-defendants of conspiracy against rights secured by the FACE Act (18 U.S.C. § 241), violation of the FACE Act (18 U.S.C. § 248), conspiracy to obstruct access to a clinic providing reproductive health services, and clinic access obstruction — the same core counts as his co-defendants, but with his role as organizer and leader emphasized by prosecutors. Gallagher was also separately convicted on August 20, 2024, in the Eastern District of Michigan of conspiracy against rights and FACE Act offenses arising from a related clinic blockade in the Detroit area.