Abortionist Remains Free While Biden Admin Convicts Pro-life Heroes

Biden’s Department of Justice is hard at work locking up hardened criminals — if by “hardened criminals” you mean grandmotherly women in their early seventies. Their crime? Peacefully protesting the industrialized slaughter of unborn children by a notorious abortionist.

On October 22, 2020, Jean Marshall, Joan Bell, Paulette Harlow, O.F.S., and their companions carried out a peaceful rescue at Washington Surgi-Clinic, an abortion clinic four blocks west of the White House. Last week on September 15, the Department of Justice convicted Marshall and Bell — 73 and 74, respectively — on federal felony charges for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and for conspiracy against rights. Their sentence, which will be decided at a later date, will include up to 11 years in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $350,000 apiece. 

Marshall and Bell: Pro-Life Heroes

Conflict with the powers that be is nothing new for Marshall or Bell. Both women have been involved in pro-life work since Roe v. Wade in 1973 and are deeply faithful Catholics whose civil disobedience is inspired by their faith.

BREAKING: Pro life activists Jean Marshall (73) and Joan Bell (74) were just convicted for blocking the entrance to an abortion clinic and now face 11 years in prison.

It’s good to see the Biden DOJ removing these hardened criminals from our streets. pic.twitter.com/W4Pysg2xoy

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 18, 2023

Marshall’s sister, Paulette Harlow, told me that Jean Marshall has dedicated decades of her life to the pro-life movement, serving as an active member of Massachusetts Citizens for Life and working to provide women with alternatives to abortion.

“She’s very peaceful, very sweet,” Harlow said of her sister. Both Harlow and Marshall are Secular Franciscans, a Catholic religious order for lay people. Marshall is not married, but she has a lot of nieces and nephews who are “crazy about her,” Harlow told The American Spectator.

“People have called, and they’re in absolute shock,” Harlow said of the community’s response. “They’re in absolute disbelief and very, very upset.” 

Like Marshall, Joan Bell has dedicated her life to the pro-life movement. She has peacefully protested for fifty years, largely through sit-ins and rescue missions. Bell has been arrested over 200 times and has spent more than six years in jail for her pro-life work, including time in solitary confinement. Live Action founder Lila Rose called her the “matriarch of pro-life activism.” 

“When Joan was handcuffed and taken away, it was like Mother Teresa being handcuffed and taken away,” Harlow said. “Joan is very holy and very peaceful … She’s just the sweetest, most incredible, loving person you could ever meet.” 

Biden’s DOJ has convicted a 74-year-old wife & mother and thrown her in prison, where she will likely spend the rest of her life.

Her crime: Protecting defenseless babies from being killed.

[Thread] pic.twitter.com/Q25h8eNLSQ

— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) September 18, 2023

When she’s not protesting abortion clinics, Bell and her husband run a ministry that has helped over 8,000 homeless pregnant mothers find lasting solutions. Of Bell’s seven children, six are adopted with special needs. Four children are from Chernobyl, one is from Mexico, and another child was adopted from a mother who planned to abort the child but changed her mind after meeting Joan, Harlow explained. 

Facing the Federal Government

Harlow participated in the October 2020 rescue and was indicted alongside Marshall, Bell, and their companions. She will be tried on October 23. As the case is pending, she was unable to speak about the details, but she emphasized that their protest was entirely peaceful. 

“There was absolutely no violence. None whatsoever,” she said. “[Marshall and I] wouldn’t be a part of it if it was [violent] because my sister and I are both Secular Franciscans.”(READ MORE: How Lindsey Graham Sabotaged the Pro-Life Movement Post Dobbs) 

She continued: “We wouldn’t want to be violent anyway; we’re there to love the people. We’re there to tell the mothers the truth, because they’re being lied to.” 

Clear video footage of the protest shows rescuers praying, singing, and offering help to the mothers. “You can’t hear one unkind word, no shouting, nothing from the rescuers,” Harlow said. “If there was violence, you’d see it, wouldn’t you?” 

By performing the peaceful rescue, Marshall and Bell violated the FACE Act, a 1994 law sponsored in part by then-Representative Chuck Schumer. When Harlow, Marshall, Bell, and their companions were taken into custody, they were interviewed by the FBI’s domestic terrorism unit. 

Written to include all reproductive health centers, the FACE Act should equally apply to abortion clinics and pregnancy care centers. But the DOJ has disproportionately used the FACE act to indict pro-life activists while turning a blind eye to violence and destruction wreaked by pro-abortion advocates. In 2022, the DOJ charged at least 26 pro-life activists with violating the FACE Act. 

Despite the 88 pro-life groups and 192 Catholic Churches that have been targeted since the Dobbs leak, the DOJ has charged only four pro-abortion activists with FACE Act violations in 2023. Where Marshall and Bell temporarily obstructed a door within the abortion clinic while remaining peaceful, the four pro-abortion activists charged with violating the FACE Act had damaged property, intimidated healthcare providers, and vandalized multiple pregnancy resource centers with spray-painted threats.

But the greatest injustice in the case isn’t that the DOJ isn’t cracking down on pro-abortion violence — it’s that abortionists continue to end the lives of innocent children. 

Protesting a Notorious Washington, D.C., Abortionist

Washington Surgi-Clinic, where Marshall, Bell, Harlow, and companions carried out the rescue, is operated by notorious abortionist Cesare Santangelo, who Harlow compared to abortionist and serial killer — pardon the redundancy — Kermit Gosnell. 

“Santangelo is killing full term babies,” Harlow said, “And, by his own admission — he said he knows it’s illegal — but if they’re born, he just leaves them alone to die.”

Santangelo’s butchery has a long history. In 2012, pro-life activism group Live Action sent a pregnant woman undercover to Santangelo’s clinic under the pretense of seeking an abortion. The woman, who was 24-weeks pregnant, asked Santangelo about late-term abortion possibilities. The abortionist explained that, while the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act defined infants born alive after abortion as “persons” requiring lifesaving care, he had intentions to comply with federal law. (READ MORE: What’s Missing in the Abortion Debate)

“It’s all in how vigorously you do things to help a fetus survive at this point,” he said. If the woman delivered her baby alive before Santangelo could finish the abortion, he explained, “We would not help it.” 

After the video was released in 2013, Santagelo spoke about his position with the Washington Post, slightly reframing his approach to infants born alive in an attempted abortion: “We would call EMS. We would call 911. But I wouldn’t do intubation or anything … You let nature take its course.” 

Yet, earlier that year, Santangelo had been sued for medical malpractice after not calling 911. The family of a patient who had died after Santangelo performed a dilation and evacuation (D&E) procedure sued the abortionist. When the D&E went awry, Santangelo failed to call 911 in a timely manner and “failed to perform appropriate resuscitation efforts.”

Harlow said that the autopsy found fetal tissue in the woman’s lung. “He had perforated her uterus and went up into her lung,” she explained. “I mean, that’s just unbelievable.”

Despite the wrongful death of his patient, Santangelo continued to perform late-term abortions in D.C. On October 22, 2020, inspired in part by his record of malpractice, pro-life activists — including Bell and Marshall — performed a peaceful rescue operation at his clinic. Two years later, on March 30, 2022, Bell, Marshall, and their companions were indicted on federal charges of civil rights conspiracy and violation of the FACE Act. 

Just before Bell and Marshall were indicted, more than one hundred aborted children were found in one box of medical waste from the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a fraction of the waste produced. Of the 115 children found, five babies were clearly killed by late-term abortions. Some were born alive and subsequently killed, which would put Santangelo in violation of the Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003. 

The FBI took possession of the remains in 2022, but the coroner has not released any information regarding their cause of death. In March of this year, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna called for Santangelo’s medical license to be revoked. Santangelo continues to practice at the Washington Surgi-Clinic. 

Defending Life as Defendants in Court

Joan Bell represented herself in court in solidarity with the aborted children who are not legally recognized as persons under American law. Bell “wrote both opening and closing statements [that] were so heavily censored by the court that she opted not to deliver them at all,” Live Action News reported. (READ MORE: Abortion Is Just A Symptom)

“I did not want to be represented because the little babies being put to death on the day I and others attempted to rescue them were never given due process of law before their falsely legal execution: no day in court, no representation,” Bell said. “Please understand. I can love God in or out of prison. I can pray in or out of prison. What matters to me is for you to know that God loves you with a passion!” 

Bell and Marshall were not allowed to remain at liberty during the time between their conviction and their sentencing. Marshall had brought a doctor’s note explaining that she has a hip replacement scheduled, but the judge “refused to keep her under house arrest.” 

Bell and Marshall will remain in jail until their sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled. Justice will be served, not by the department that bears its name, but by a far higher power. Santangelo walks free in this life, but he will have much to account for when he meets his maker, as will all those who have turned a blind eye and enabled his butchery.

As for Bell and Marshall, blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Mary Frances Myler is a writer from Northern Michigan in exile in Washington, D.C. You can follow her on Twitter @mfmyler.

READ MORE by Mary Frances Myler: 

The Fighting Irish Fight for Freedom From Porn

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