The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) sentenced Paulette Harlow, age 75, to a 24-month prison term for her role in blockading a Washington, D.C. abortion clinic in October of 2020.
Harlow is the tenth and final person to be convicted in connection with the protest at the clinic, with the others receiving sentences ranging between 10 and 57 months, or nearly five years.
According to the DOJ, charges were brought against Harlow and the other nine defendants under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which “prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services.”
Several of the defendants, including Harlow, were also convicted of Felony Conspiracy Against Civil Rights.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), this is defined as “conspir[ing] to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person…in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured…by the Constitution or the laws of the United States.”
Jay Smith, age 34, was the only defendant to plead guilty and was sentenced to ten months in jail with three years of supervised release.
Lauren Handy, age 30, received the longest prison sentence out of the ten defendants — totaling nearly five years, with an additional three years of supervised release — for her role in organizing the protest.
Harlow’s sister Jean Marshall, age 74, was also sentenced to a 24 month jail term with three years of supervised release.
With the exception of Smith, all defendants in this case were sentenced between May 14 and May 31 of this year.
The protest was live streamed for about an hour and a half on the DC Area Anti-Abortion Advocacy Facebook page by 34-year-old Jonathan Darnel, and as of the publication of this article, is still available to be viewed.
The video is captioned: “Pro-life rescuers are entering the doors of an abortion clinic and saving babies from death. This is very risky for the rescuers but it’s about time we got serious about ending abortion again.”
In this video, protestors — some of whom were chained together — can be seen sitting inside the clinic praying and singing hymns. These individuals are also shown refusing requests from law enforcement officials to leave.
Click Here to Watch the Full Video
The DOJ stated in a press release this past Friday that “the evidence at trial showed” that the “defendants engaged in a conspiracy to create a blockade at the reproductive health care clinic to prevent the clinic from providing, and patients from receiving, reproductive health services.”
“As part of the conspiracy,” the DOJ continued, “many of the defendants traveled to Washington, D.C. from various northeast and midwestern states, to meet with Lauren Handy and participate in a clinic blockade that was directed by Handy and was broadcast on Facebook.”
“According to the evidence, on October 22, 2020, Handy – along with her co-conspirators Jonathan Darnel, John Hinshaw, William Goodman, Jean Marshall, Joan Bell, Herb Geraghty, Heather Idoni, and Paula Harlow, among others – forcefully entered the clinic and set about blockading two clinic doors using their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes,” said the DOJ.
“Once the blockade was established, they live-streamed their activities,” explained the DOJ. “The evidence also showed that the defendants violated the FACE Act by using a physical obstruction to injure, intimidate and interfere with the clinic’s employees and a patient, because they were providing or obtaining reproductive health services.”
Click Here to Read the DOJ’s Full Press Release
According to the Daily Caller, Harlow suffers from several ailments, including diabetes, Hashimoto’s disease, and severe back pain that requires her to use a wheelchair.
Harlow’s attorney, Allen Orenberg, reportedly asked the court for leniency on account of her frail health. Her husband, John Harlow, was also said to have made an appeal to the court on these grounds.
“I feel like Paulette is dying,” her husband was described as saying. “In my heart, I think she’s having a hard time staying alive.”
Harlow has reportedly been allowed to remain on house arrest until a suitable facility for her is identified.
My Heart Breaks! So the DOJ deals swiftly and so strongly with these protesters, yet students are fearful to go to a college class as protesters chanting vile death threats take over campus. And illegals who are members of vicious gangs go free if they are even arrested.
Does this mean we can charge the anti gun protestors outside of cabelas with the same crime?
Excellent. From now on anyone blocking traffic in protest will win a two year sentence, cant wait.
The DoJ will allo0w unvetted criminals across the border and watch as crimes are committed including murder of innocent women yet this grandmother is scheduled to go to jail for what crime? Standing in front of a clinic that performs legalized murder on unborn children and praying. The democratic party should be sooooooo proud of themselves for this one.
What has become to the 80,000 “NEW” CHILDERN let in to AMERICA by Joe and his supporters KING< PINGREE< COLLINS & JARAID. They can not tell you were they are. They do not even know if the are alive. Some bunch of leaders.
but our illustrious UN-JUSTICE DEPTwill refuse to try the scum in the white house because hes to old and fail! keep voting for these disgusting people and you’ll ge more of the same and worse!
“Harlow has reportedly been allowed to remain on house arrest until a suitable facility for her is identified.”
There is no such place for a 75 year old woman trying to save babies. The slide to totalitarianism continues. She should be held up as a hero.
The United States Justice Department doesn’t have the authority to sentence anybody to anything. That’s what judges are for.
Thank God we finally got this woman off the streets! Now there’s more room for the illegals, murderers, rapists, child molesters, and terrorists imported with zeal by the Biden regime.
Wow! All of the comments are completely off topic comparisons and full of hate and part of the reason why politics suck! I voted Trump and will again, but why does everything always have to be all or nothing? There is such a thing as middle ground and unless more people find it humans will fail to communicate and solve anything. So a woman wants an abortion… why should you or anybody else make that choice for her or get in her face about it? Back up and look at the big picture folks. Abortion should be a legal choice, and it should be safe.