Federal judge sentences 4 anti-abortion activists for blocking Tennessee clinic in 2021

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Four anti-abortion activists who were sentenced in January on criminal conspiracy charges for their roles in locking down a Tennessee clinic in 2021, were sentenced this week to sentences ranging from 6 months in prison to three years of supervised release. The sentences were below those requested by prosecutors, and U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger said she took into account the defendants’ good work in their communities.

Although the judge acknowledged that his actions were based on sincerely held religious beliefs, she said that was not an excuse for breaking the law. The defendants used their religious fervor to “allow themselves to ignore the pain they caused other people and ignore their own humanity,” Trauger said.

About 200 supporters, including many parents with children, gathered and prayed outside the federal courthouse in Nashville ahead of sentencing hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday. They also packed a courtroom where proceedings were broadcast live, filling the benches and spilling out onto the floor and into the hallway.

The convictions stem from a lockdown at the Carafem reproductive health clinic in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, a city 17 miles east of Nashville, nearly a year before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Organizers used social media to promote and live stream actions they hoped would prevent the clinic from performing abortions, according to testimony. They also intended the video to be a training tool for other activists, Trauger found.

At the time, abortion was still legal in Tennessee. It is now prohibited at all stages of pregnancy under a law that very restricted exemptions.

In total, 11 people were convicted of crimes related to the lockdown. The four sentenced this week were among six people convicted of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinical Entrances Act and more serious criminal conspiracy charges for their roles as organizers. Lawyers for the defendants argued that prosecutors went too far in charging them with a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $260,000.

In the end, Trauger ordered much lighter sentences. Paul Vaughn and Dennis Green received three years of supervised release. Coleman Boyd received five years probation. Calvin Zastrow, considered one of the main organizers, was sentenced to 6 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Boyd, the only one of the four who Trauger said could pay, was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

Trauger previously agreed to delay sentencing until September for the two remaining felony convictions. Heather Idoni and Chester Gallagher were preparing for an August trial in Michigan on similar charges. Idoni is currently serving a 2-year sentence for Clinical lockdown in 2020 in Washington, DC

One defendant, Caroline Davis, who pleaded guilty in October to misdemeanor charges and cooperated with prosecutors, was sentenced to three years’ probation in April. Another four were convicted in April of misdemeanor violations for blocking the main door of the clinic so that no patient could enter. Police asked them to leave or move several times, but they refused and were eventually arrested. They were scheduled to be sentenced on July 30 and face up to six months in prison, five years of supervised release and fines of up to $10,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.