Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury has indicted two people who vandalized pregnancy centers.
Caleb Freestone and Amber Smith-Stewart spray-painted threats on pro-life pregnancy center buildings. One of the facilities they vandalized in June after someone leaked the draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was the LifeChoice Pregnancy Center in Winter Haven, Florida.
“As many of you know in this past week Roe Vs. Wade was overturned and the power was given back to individual states, concerning abortion laws and rights,” Development Director Lyndsy Flanagan wrote on Facebook in June. “LifeChoice has and will always be a Beacon of Hope for women facing unplanned pregnancies. Our mission hasn’t changed and we plan to continue our work to help women and families in our community.”
Flanagan appealed to supporters for funds to help repair the damage.
Freestone and Smith-Stewart face up to 12 years in prison, three years’ supervised released, and up to $350,000 in fines if convicted of engaging in a conspiracy to prevent employees at pregnancy centers from providing services. From DOJ:
The indictment also alleges that Freestone and Smith-Stewart violated the FACE Act by using threats of force to intimidate and interfere with the employees of a reproductive health services facility in Winter Haven because those employees were providing or seeking to provide reproductive health services. The indictment further alleges that Freestone and Smith-Stewart violated the FACE Act by intentionally damaging and destroying the facility’s property because the facility provides reproductive health services.
President Bill Clinton signed The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE Act, into law in 1994, which bars the use of force or intimidation against anyone trying to access an abortion clinic or pregnancy center, exercising their right to religious freedom, or intentionally destroying or damaging such a facility or place of worship.
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