Eva Edl, 89, is a well-known pro-life activist and communist concentration camp survivor who fled Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe.
An elderly Soviet concentration camp survivor and six other pro-life activists have been found guilty of blocking access to a Michigan abortion clinic, the latest in a series of high-profile rulings against anti-abortion activists in federal court.
The seven defendants in the case were found guilty for their involvement in a “blockade of a reproductive health care clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan” on August 27, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release on Tuesday.
The protesters were convicted of both criminal conspiracy against human rights and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, the government said. Sentencing will be announced at a later date.
Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, alleged that the pro-lifers “staged an unlawful blockade of clinics and physically prevented patients from going to their doctors, with no regard for the serious medical needs of the women they were denying access to reproductive health care.”
The defendants – Calvin Zastrow, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Caroline Davis, Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Eva Edl and Eva Zastrow – reportedly held the demonstration as part of a “Michigan Holiness Revival Tour” whose “express goal was to blockade a reproductive health clinic,” according to the Justice Department.
Eva Edl, 89, is a well-known pro-life activist and communist concentration camp survivor who fled Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe.
Her biography reveals that her mother was kidnapped by the Soviets in post-war Europe. She and her siblings were then deported to communist concentration camps in Yugoslavia. She eventually escaped and emigrated to the USA.
The Biden administration has aggressively pursued several FACE Act cases in recent years, imposing prison sentences on men and women who have attempted to block access to abortion clinics across the country.
Some of the activists found guilty this week, including Eva Edl, were also found guilty earlier this year for a similar blockade of an abortion facility in Tennessee in 2021. Edl has yet to be sentenced for that conviction.
Last year, several pro-life activists were convicted under the FACE Act for an October 2020 demonstration outside the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, DC, run by Cesare Santangelo.
Lauren Handy, 30, a pro-life activist, was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison in May for organizing the protest.
Several other protesters were eventually sentenced to prison terms of between two and three years.
Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas and 25 House Republicans introduced a resolution to repeal the FACE Act last year, arguing that the Biden administration had “brazenly used the FACE Act as a weapon against regular, everyday Americans from across the political spectrum simply because they are pro-life.”
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump indicated earlier this year that he would push for the release of some convicted pro-life activists if he were re-elected in November.
“A lot of people are in prison because of this. … We will deal with this immediately – (on) day one,” he told the Faith and Freedom Coalition in June.
