Pro-abortion vandals plead guilty to federal charges for defacing pro-life pregnancy centers
Four pro-abortion activists have pled guilty to vandalizing several pro-life pregnancy centers in Florida more than two years after damaging the centers.
In a statement shared with The Christian Post on Thursday, First Liberty Institute announced that the vandals affiliated with the pro-abortion group Jane’s Revenge who defaced several pro-life pregnancy centers in Florida with graffiti two years ago plead guilty to charges of conspiracy and racketeering brought under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
The federal law, passed by Congress three decades ago, subjects anyone who “intentionally damages or destroys the property of a facility, or attempts to do so, because such facility provides reproductive health services” to federal charges. The First Liberty Institute, along with Florida’s Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody, brought civil lawsuits on behalf of the facilities vandalized by the defendants.
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Moody cheered the development: “We will not allow radicals to threaten and intimidate women seeking help from crisis pregnancy centers or the counselors and health care professionals serving these women and their babies. In Florida, illegal actions have consequences, and I am proud of the work our attorneys did in this case to make sure these extremists were held accountable.”
“The entry of these felony plea agreements serves as a reminder that no one should suffer violence for simply providing faith-based counseling and baby supplies to women and their babies,” said First Liberty Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys. “Attorney General Moody’s leadership, together with our lawsuit, sends a clear message: those who target life-affirming reproductive health facilities with violence will face the legal penalties Congress established for their crimes.”
Two of the defendants, Caleb Freestone and Amber Smith-Stewart, vandalized the Heartbeat of Miami Pregnancy Medical Help Clinic in Hialeah, Florida, on July 3, 2022. The defacing of the property with pro-abortion graffiti was one of several attacks against pro-life pregnancy centers to take place in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which determined that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion.
Messages spray-painted onto the exterior walls of Heartbeat of Miami declared, “If abortions aren’t safe [then] neither are you” and vowed that “our rage will not stop.” Graffiti spray painted on the side of the building read “Jane’s Revenge,” referring to a group of pro-abortion activists who've claimed credit for multiple instances of pro-abortion vandalism.
As alleged in the lawsuit First Liberty Institute filed on behalf of Heartbeat of Miami, defendants’ harassment of the pro-life pregnancy clinic continued two-and-a-half months later at its annual gala.
First Liberty Institute noted Thursday that a third defendant, Annarella Rivera, joined Freestone in working to “hack their way onto Heartbeat’s guest list” for the event, “where they shouted obscenities, disparaged Heartbeat’s staff, volunteers, and supporters, and leafletted the venue with propaganda hoping to dissuade women from using Heartbeat’s services.”
First Liberty Institute noted that the crimes committed by the three defendants as well as an unnamed fourth defendant extended to “several Florida pregnancy resource centers” but did not go into detail. A 2023 indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida identifies Gabriella Oropesa as the fourth defendant.
Last month, the defendants pled guilty to charges of vandalizing pro-life pregnancy centers in connection with the indictment, which is separate from the lawsuit filed by First Liberty Institute. This indictment implicated the quartet of pro-abortion activists for the vandalism of the South Broward Pregnancy Health Center in Hollywood, Florida, in May 2022.
Graffiti spray-painted on the exterior wall of the pro-life pregnancy center proclaimed: “If abortions aren’t safe then neither are you.” This act of vandalism took place before the Dobbs decision but after the publication of the leaked draft decision indicating that the justices were poised to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
The indictment also charged Freestone, Smith-Stewart and Rivera with the vandalism of the Winter Haven, Florida-based LifeChoice Pregnancy Center, which was carried out two days after the Dobbs decision and exactly one week before the attack on Heartbeat of Miami. LifeChoice Pregnancy Center was defaced with messages warning that “YOUR TIME IS UP!!” “WE’RE COMING FOR U” and “We are everywhere.”
News of the four defendants’ guilty pleas comes a month after First Liberty Institute first revealed that Heartbeat of Miami had reached a settlement with the vandals that will require them to “pay for their crimes.” Although the law firm did not elaborate on the details of the settlement, First Liberty Institute expressed gratitude for the “big win for Florida’s pro-life community” and maintained that the perpetrators of the vandalism “will be held to account.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]
