Pro-life activists' years-long prison sentence shocks social media: 'Two-tiered justice system' (2024)

A federal judge's decision to sentence pro-life activists to years in prison for blocking access to an abortion clinic has sent shock waves online.

Lauren Handy, 30, was one of three activists convicted of conspiracy against rights and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) for blocking access to the Washington Surgi-Clinic on Oct. 22, 2020.

U.S. District JudgeColleen Kollar-Kotelly, nominated by former President Clinton, sentenced Handy to four years and nine months in prison for organizing the protest. Co-defendant John Hinshaw, 69, was sentenced to a year and nine months in prison while William Goodman, 54, of Bronx, New York, was sentenced to 27 months and three years of supervised release. Four additional defendants will be sentenced Wednesday and two more in the coming weeks, according to a press release from the Justice Department.

Conservative and pro-life activists blasted the decision on social media, claiming the pro-life activists faced far harsher punishments than left-wing agitators have received for conducting violent riots for other social causes.

FOUR MORE PRO-LIFE PROTESTERS FACE PRISON TIME AFTER BEING CONVICTED FOR VIOLATING FACE ACT

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Lauren Handy, 30, of Alexandria, Virginia, to 57 months in prison and three years of supervised release. (Getty Images)

Conservative account LibsofTikTok argued that some Black Lives Matter rioters who committed arson were treated less harshly by the justice system.

"Lauren Handy was just sentenced to 57 months in prison for protesting in front of an abortion clinic," she wrote on X. "Meanwhile most BLM rioters and looters had their charges dropped after they burned down our country for 6 months and caused billions in damage. Two-tiered justice system."

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also claimed anti-Israel protesters on college campuses were treated with more leniency than the abortion protesters.

"Protesters can block roads, airports, public transit, take over college campuses, and fight police without consequences, but if you pray, sing hymns, and try to convince women to not have their unborn babies killed then you go to prison for YEARS!!!" she wrote.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE

Pro-life groups have called to repeal the FACE Act.

Pro-life activist AJ Hurley compared the case of a Pennsylvania mother who smothered her child to death but walked free to the five-year prison sentence Handy faces.

"Three weeks ago a judge let a woman walk who smothered her child to death while on meth. Today a judge sentenced a prolife activist (Lauren Handy) to nearly 5 years in federal prison for a peaceful sit in at an abortion clinic. Welcome to America," he posted to X.

Lila Rose, founder of pro-life organization Live Action was also appalled by the sentence.

She wrote on X, "30-year-old pro-life activist Lauren Handy has just been sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for handing roses and resources to women at an abortion facility, Meanwhile, abortionists who dismember and kill children walk free. A grave injustice!"

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas reacted to the ruling by claiming the Justice Department was targeting peaceful pro-lifers.

PRO-LIFE ACTIVISTS FOUND GUILTY ON CONSPIRACY CHARGES FOR 2020 ‘RESCUE ACTION’ AT DC CLINIC

Conservatives and pro-life activists blasted the ruling handed down by a U.S. District Court judge on Tuesday sentencing pro-life protesters to prison time. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

"Biden's DOJ wants to target peaceful Americans but wants to brush under the rug laws possibly being broken in DC (like killing preemie babies)," he claimed on X, adding the hashtags, #TwoTieredJustice and #RepealFACE.

Roy's post refers to the remains of five aborted babies whom Handy's group, Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), found in the garbage outside the Washington Surgi-Clinic, days after her indictment. Roy has called for the DOJ to investigate whether their deaths were caused by illegal abortions as the babies were fully-formed, with some allegedly appearing to be in the third-trimester.

During the trial in July, Handy and co-defendant Herb Geraghty, referenced pro-life organization Live Action's "Inhuman: Undercover in America's Late-Term Abortion Industry" video as influencing their decision to participate in the blockade.

In the 2013 undercover video, Washington Surgi-Clinic abortion doctor Cesare Santangelo tells a pregnant woman that if a patient went into labor and delivered before the "termination part of the procedure" was carried out, then the clinic "would not help it."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Handy and her peers were accused of blocking access to a Washington, D.C. based abortion clinic. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Santangelo later told The Washington Post that the clinic would call 9-1-1 but would not take any "extraordinary" life-saving measures to save the baby. "What I said is, basically I wouldn’t do anything extraordinary," he told The Post in 2013. "We would call EMS. We would call 9-1-1. But I wouldn’t do intubation or anything. . . . You let nature take its course."

Judge Kollar-Kotelly did not permit Live Action’s video to be played in court during the trial last year, reportedly calling it "heavily edited" and "gossip from propagandists."

Defense lawyers asked for a prison sentence of one year for Handy. However, prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of roughly six years for Handy. They described her as an anti-abortion extremist who was a "criminal mastermind" behind the Washington invasion and similar attacks on other clinics.

At Handy's sentencing, Kollar-Kotelly said that she was being punished for her actions, not her beliefs.

"The law does not protect violent nor obstructive conduct, nor should it," Kollar-Kotelly said.

Fox News' Jamie Joseph contributed to this article.