Pardons & Commutations

Joan Andrews Bell, 76, is one of the most prominent figures in the American pro-life movement, having been arrested more than 200 times and served more than six years in prison over decades of clinic blockade activism stretching back to the 1980s, when her extended imprisonment in Florida helped fuel the Operation Rescue movement. On October 22, 2020, she was among ten defendants who participated in a coordinated blockade of the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C. Along with co-defendants Lauren Handy, Jonathan Darnel, Herb Geraghty, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall, John Hinshaw, William Goodman, Paulette Harlow, and Jay Smith, Bell traveled to Washington to take part in what the group's leaders — Handy and Darnel — had organized as a "historic" rescue, livestreamed on Facebook. The defendants used force and physical obstruction to blockade two clinic entrances using their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes, preventing staff and patients from accessing the facility. A clinic nurse was injured during the group's forced entry; one patient had to climb through a receptionist window to access the clinic, and another was left lying in the hallway outside in physical distress. Bell was convicted at trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248). Her conviction came in September 2023 in the second of three separate trials in the case, alongside co-defendants Jean Marshall and Jonathan Darnel.

Justin Phillips, a Michigan pastor and father of four, was one of seven pro-life activists convicted on August 20, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan of conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248), arising out of a blockade of the Northland Family Planning Clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan, on August 27, 2020. The blockade was organized as part of the "Michigan Holiness Revival Tour," a camping tour arranged by co-defendant Calvin Zastrow with the express purpose of blockading a reproductive health clinic. Phillips participated in a sit-in outside the clinic entrance alongside co-defendants Calvin Zastrow, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Joel Curry, Eva Edl, and Eva Zastrow, physically blocking patients and employees from entering the facility. Among those blocked was a patient whose fetus had been diagnosed with fatal abnormalities and for whom continuing the pregnancy posed serious risks to her health and fertility. The trial lasted six weeks in the Eastern District of Michigan.

Paul Vaughn, a father of eleven, was one of six defendants convicted at trial in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee of conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248), arising from a March 5, 2021 blockade of the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Vaughn was indicted in October 2022 and convicted in January 2024. His co-defendants at trial included Chester Gallagher, Calvin Zastrow, Heather Idoni, Coleman Boyd, and Dennis Green; a seventh originally charged defendant, Caroline Davis, cooperated with the government and was handled separately. The defendants blocked patients and staff from accessing the clinic during the blockade. Vaughn faced a maximum combined penalty of 11 years in federal prison. His arrest — conducted by armed FBI agents — attracted widespread attention.

William Goodman, 54, of the Bronx, New York, was one of ten defendants who participated in a coordinated blockade of the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C., on October 22, 2020. Along with co-defendants Lauren Handy, Jonathan Darnel, Herb Geraghty, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall, Joan Bell, John Hinshaw, Paulette Harlow, and Jay Smith, Goodman traveled to Washington to take part in what the group's leaders — Handy and Darnel — had organized as a "historic" rescue, livestreamed on Facebook. The defendants used force and physical obstruction to blockade two clinic entrances using their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes, preventing staff and patients from accessing the facility. A clinic nurse was injured during the group's forced entry; one patient had to climb through a receptionist window to access the clinic, and another was left lying in the hallway outside in physical distress. Goodman was convicted at trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248). His conviction came on August 29, 2023, in the first of three separate trials in the case, alongside co-defendants Lauren Handy, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, and Herb Geraghty.

Calvin Zastrow, a self-described pro-life missionary from Kawkalin, Michigan, was one of seven defendants charged in October 2022 with the more serious counts arising from a planned blockade of the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, on March 5, 2021. According to a federal grand jury indictment unsealed in the Middle District of Tennessee, Zastrow and his co-defendants — including Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Coleman Boyd, Dennis Green, Caroline Davis, and Paul Vaughn — used force and physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, and interfere with clinic employees and a patient who was seeking reproductive health services, blocking the entry doors and preventing the patient and an employee from entering. Zastrow was convicted of conspiracy against rights secured by the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (18 U.S.C. § 241), violation of the FACE Act (18 U.S.C. § 248) through physical obstruction, conspiracy to obstruct access to a clinic providing reproductive health services, and clinic access obstruction. The case was prosecuted by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Caroline Davis, of Michigan, was among the eleven defendants indicted in October 2022 for the March 5, 2021 blockade of the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, where she participated alongside Calvin Zastrow, Chester Gallagher, and others in physically obstructing access to the clinic. Davis was also charged separately in the Eastern District of Michigan in connection with a similar clinic blockade in Sterling Heights, Michigan, in August 2020. Rather than proceeding to trial, Davis entered a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in which she agreed to cooperate with the government, testified as a key prosecution witness in the Tennessee trial against her co-defendants (United States v. Gallagher et al.) and in the Washington, D.C. FACE Act prosecution, and had her felony charge reduced to a misdemeanor. She was convicted of conspiracy to interfere with access to clinic entrances, aiding and abetting interference with access to clinic entrances, conspiracy, and interference with clinic access, across the two proceedings in Tennessee and Michigan.

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.

Christopher Moscinski — known in religious life as Father Fidelis Moscinski, a priest of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR) — was convicted of interference with freedom of access to reproductive health services under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (18 U.S.C. § 248) in the Eastern District of New York. On the morning of July 7, 2022, Moscinski went to the Planned Parenthood of Greater New York clinic in Hempstead, New York, where he placed padlocks, bicycle locks, and chains on the gated entrance and poured glue into some of the locks, effectively shutting the clinic down for approximately two hours. After police and fire personnel cut through the locks, Moscinski lay down in front of the entrance in his religious habit to physically block vehicles from entering the parking lot until he was arrested. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Coleman Boyd, 51, of Bolton, Mississippi, was one of the seven defendants charged with the most serious counts arising from the March 5, 2021 blockade of the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. According to evidence presented at trial, Boyd played a visible promotional role in organizing the event: on March 4, 2021, he and Chester Gallagher advertised the planned blockade on Facebook, and the following morning Boyd began a Facebook livestream broadcast of the blockade at 7:45 a.m., titled "Mt. Juliet, TN Rescue March 5, 2021," through which he broadcast the event to a live audience in real time. During the livestream, Boyd described a patient attempting to access the clinic as "a mom coming to kill her baby." He was convicted at trial on January 30, 2024, of conspiracy to obstruct access to a clinic providing reproductive health services (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the FACE Act (18 U.S.C. § 248). The case was prosecuted in the Middle District of Tennessee.

Dennis Green, 56, of Cumberland, Virginia, was one of the seven defendants charged with the most serious counts arising from the March 5, 2021 blockade of the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. According to the federal indictment, Green and his co-defendants traveled from out of state to participate in the planned blockade, using force and physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, and interfere with clinic employees and a patient seeking reproductive health services. He was convicted at trial on January 30, 2024, of conspiracy to obstruct access to a clinic providing reproductive health services (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the FACE Act (18 U.S.C. § 248). The case was prosecuted by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Eva Zastrow, 24, of Dover, Arkansas, was among the defendants charged in connection with the March 5, 2021 blockade of the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, where she and others physically blocked the clinic entrance for over two hours, preventing employees and a patient from accessing the facility. Unlike the seven co-defendants charged with the felony conspiracy counts, Zastrow was charged with the misdemeanor FACE Act violation for her direct participation in the obstruction. She was convicted at a separate trial in April 2024, alongside Eva Edl, James Zastrow, and Paul Place. The profile also records convictions for conspiracy against rights and clinic access obstruction, reflecting charges arising from related FACE Act proceedings. The conviction and sentence were subsequently vacated and dismissed.

Heather Idoni, of Linden, Michigan — a grandmother who raised five biological children and adopted ten boys from Ukraine — was convicted of FACE Act offenses in two separate federal proceedings. Her primary conviction arose from the October 22, 2020 blockade of a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C., in which she and co-defendants invaded and blockaded the clinic to prevent it from providing reproductive health services. She was tried in that case in August 2023 in the District of Columbia, convicted of conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) and FACE Act violations, and was remanded into custody immediately following the verdict pending sentencing. She was also among the seven defendants convicted at the January 2024 trial in the Middle District of Tennessee for the March 5, 2021 blockade of the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, where she participated in physically obstructing the clinic entrance for over two hours. Her convictions across both proceedings included conspiracy against rights, FACE Act violations, and clinic access obstruction.

James Zastrow, 25, of Eldon, Missouri, was among the defendants charged in connection with the March 5, 2021 blockade of the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, where participants physically blocked the clinic entrance for over two hours, preventing employees and a patient from accessing the facility. Unlike the seven co-defendants charged with felony conspiracy counts, Zastrow faced the misdemeanor charge: violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (18 U.S.C. § 248) for his direct participation in the physical obstruction. He was convicted at a separate trial in April 2024, alongside Eva Edl, Eva Zastrow, and Paul Place, in the Middle District of Tennessee. James Zastrow is related to Calvin Zastrow and Eva Zastrow, who were also prosecuted in connection with the same and related FACE Act incidents.

Jean Marshall, 74, was one of ten defendants who participated in a coordinated blockade of the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C., on October 22, 2020. Along with co-defendants Lauren Handy, Jonathan Darnel, Herb Geraghty, Heather Idoni, Joan Bell, John Hinshaw, William Goodman, Paulette Harlow, and Jay Smith, Marshall traveled to Washington to take part in what the group's leaders — Handy and Darnel — had organized as a "historic" pro-life rescue, livestreamed on Facebook. The defendants used force and physical obstruction to blockade two clinic entrances using their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes, preventing staff and patients from accessing the facility. A clinic nurse was injured during the group's forced entry; one patient had to climb through a receptionist window, and another was left lying in the hallway outside in physical distress. Marshall was convicted at trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248). Her conviction came in September 2023 in the second of three separate trials in the case.

Joel Curry was one of seven pro-life activists convicted on August 20, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan of conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248), arising out of a blockade of the Northland Family Planning Clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan, on August 27, 2020. The blockade was organized as part of the "Michigan Holiness Revival Tour," a camping trip arranged by co-defendant Calvin Zastrow with the express purpose of blockading a reproductive health clinic. Curry and co-defendant Chester Gallagher livestreamed the blockade; the defendants collectively sat or stood in front of clinic entrances to prevent patients and employees from entering. Among those blocked was a patient whose fetus had been diagnosed with fatal abnormalities and for whom continuing the pregnancy posed serious risks to her health and fertility. Curry's co-defendants included Calvin Zastrow, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Justin Phillips, Eva Edl, and Eva Zastrow.

John Hinshaw, 69, was one of ten defendants who participated in a coordinated blockade of the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C., on October 22, 2020. Along with co-defendants Lauren Handy, Jonathan Darnel, Herb Geraghty, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall, Joan Bell, William Goodman, Paulette Harlow, and Jay Smith, Hinshaw traveled to Washington to take part in what the group's leaders — Handy and Darnel — had organized as a "historic" rescue, livestreamed on Facebook. The defendants used force and physical obstruction to blockade two clinic entrances using their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes, preventing staff and patients from accessing the facility. A clinic nurse was injured during the group's forced entry; one patient had to climb through a receptionist window to access the clinic, and another was left lying in the hallway outside in physical distress. Hinshaw was convicted at trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248). His conviction came on August 29, 2023, in the first of three separate trials in the case, alongside co-defendants Lauren Handy, William Goodman, Heather Idoni, and Herb Geraghty.

Jonathan Darnel, 43, was one of the two principal organizers of a coordinated blockade of the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C., on October 22, 2020. Darnel and co-defendant Lauren Handy led the planning and coordination of the clinic invasion, advertising the event on social media as a "historic" rescue and livestreaming it on Facebook. Along with eight other co-defendants — Handy, Herb Geraghty, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall, Joan Bell, John Hinshaw, William Goodman, Paulette Harlow, and Jay Smith — Darnel organized the group's entry into the clinic, where they used their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes to blockade two clinic entrances, preventing staff and patients from accessing the facility. A clinic nurse was injured during the group's forced entry; one patient had to climb through a receptionist window to access the clinic, and another was left lying in the hallway outside in physical distress. Darnel was convicted at trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248). His conviction came in September 2023 in the second of three separate trials in the case, alongside co-defendants Jean Marshall and Joan Bell.

Lauren Handy was the principal co-organizer, along with co-defendant Jonathan Darnel, of a coordinated blockade of the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C., on October 22, 2020. Handy and Darnel planned and organized the clinic invasion using social media, text messages, and phone calls, advertising the event as a "historic" rescue that was livestreamed on Facebook. Evidence at trial established that Handy arranged a fake patient appointment to secure the group's entry into the clinic. Once inside, she and co-defendants Herb Geraghty, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall, Joan Bell, John Hinshaw, William Goodman, Paulette Harlow, and Jay Smith used their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes to blockade two clinic entrances, preventing staff and patients from accessing the facility. A clinic nurse was injured during the forced entry; one patient had to climb through a receptionist window to access the clinic, and another was left lying in the hallway outside in physical distress. Handy was convicted at trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248). Her conviction came on August 29, 2023, in the first of three separate trials in the case.

Paulette Harlow, 75, of Kingston, Massachusetts, was one of ten defendants who participated in a coordinated blockade of the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C., on October 22, 2020. Along with co-defendants Lauren Handy, Jonathan Darnel, Herb Geraghty, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall, Joan Bell, John Hinshaw, William Goodman, and Jay Smith, Harlow traveled to Washington to take part in what the group's leaders — Handy and Darnel — had organized as a "historic" rescue, livestreamed on Facebook. The defendants used force and physical obstruction to blockade two clinic entrances using their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes, preventing staff and patients from accessing the facility. A clinic nurse was injured during the group's forced entry; one patient had to climb through a receptionist window to access the clinic, and another was left lying in the hallway outside in physical distress. Harlow was convicted at trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248). Her conviction came in November 2023 in the third and final of three separate trials in the case.

Paul Place, 24, was one of four defendants convicted in April 2024 of a misdemeanor violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248) in a bench trial in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The conviction arose from a March 5, 2021 blockade of the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Place and co-defendants Eva Edl, Eva Zastrow, and James Zastrow sat in front of the clinic's main entrance for more than two hours, physically preventing patients and staff from accessing the facility. The blockade was part of the broader Mt. Juliet case that also resulted in felony conspiracy against rights and FACE Act convictions for seven other participants — including Chester Gallagher, Calvin Zastrow, Heather Idoni, Caroline Davis, Coleman Boyd, Dennis Green, and Paul Vaughn — who were charged and tried separately. Place's misdemeanor charge reflects his role in the physical obstruction rather than the felony conspiracy.

Eva Edl, 87, of Aiken, South Carolina — a survivor of a communist concentration camp in post-war Yugoslavia — was convicted of FACE Act offenses across two federal jurisdictions. In the Middle District of Tennessee, she was convicted of violation of the FACE Act and clinic access obstruction for her participation in the March 5, 2021 blockade of the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, where she and other defendants physically blocked the clinic entrance for over two hours, preventing employees and a patient from accessing the facility. Separately, in the Eastern District of Michigan, she was convicted of conspiracy against rights and FACE Act violations arising from two additional incidents: an August 27, 2020 blockade of an abortion clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan, where she allegedly attempted to stall police officers from ending the blockade; and an April 16, 2021 obstruction at a clinic in Saginaw, Michigan, where she sat in front of a door and placed a doorstop against it to prevent staff from opening it from the inside.

Herb Geraghty, an atheist pro-life activist, was among several defendants convicted in the District of Columbia for their roles in the October 22, 2020 blockade of the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a late-term abortion facility in Washington, D.C. According to prosecutors, Geraghty assisted co-defendant Lauren Handy in planning the blockade, in which participants entered the clinic and used chairs, chains, and ropes to block the entrance and prevent staff from providing and patients from receiving reproductive health services; a nurse sustained an ankle injury during the entry. A jury found in August 2023 that Geraghty used force or violence against clinic employees, or aided and abetted co-defendants in doing so. Geraghty was convicted of conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the FACE Act (18 U.S.C. § 248), making Geraghty the first openly atheist defendant indicted and convicted under the FACE Act.

Williams, a Tennessee-based anti-abortion activist, was convicted after a nine-day jury trial on February 22, 2024, before U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon in the Southern District of New York. She was found guilty of one count of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (18 U.S.C. § 248), which prohibits the use of force, threat of force, or physical obstruction to prevent individuals from obtaining or providing reproductive health services. On June 19 and 20, 2020, Williams used physical force and threats against patients and staff at a Planned Parenthood clinic in lower Manhattan, repeatedly blocked clinic doors to prevent access, and crushed a staff member's hand in the clinic door. Prosecutors also presented evidence of a broader campaign from at least 2019 through 2022 in which Williams engaged in similar intimidation and interference at reproductive health clinics across multiple states, including Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, and Brooklyn. She was among approximately 23 pro-life activists pardoned by Trump on January 23, 2025 — his fourth day in office.

Jay Smith, 32, of Freeport, New York, was among ten defendants charged in connection with the October 22, 2020 blockade of a reproductive health care clinic in Washington, D.C. — the same Washington Surgi-Clinic invasion that also resulted in convictions for Lauren Handy, Paulette Harlow, Jean Marshall, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, William Goodman, Herb Geraghty, and Joan Bell. Rather than proceeding to trial with most of his co-defendants, Smith entered a guilty plea on March 1, 2023 to a felony charge of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (18 U.S.C. § 248). The charge alleged that Smith used force and physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, and interfere with a nurse and other employees of the clinic because of the reproductive health services being provided, and that his conduct resulted in bodily injury to the clinic nurse. The case was prosecuted by the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.