Pro-Life Prisoners of Conscience
By Rick Hinshaw
“When the just cry out, the Lord hears them, and from all their distress, he rescues them.”
– Psalm 34
Why are my brother and eight other pro-life prisoners of conscience—having already spent eight months in jail—about to be sentenced, probably to years in federal prison?
Because in October 2020, they engaged in peaceful, prayerful civil disobedience at a notorious late-term Washington, D.C. abortion clinic that the Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles has labeled an “infanticide factory.”
And because, a year-and-a-half later, two of their group retrieved the remains of five late-term or full-term aborted babies in that clinic’s trash and challenged authorities to investigate whether the abortionist was violating the federal ban on partial-birth abortions or the federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act.
Instead, the FBI re-arrested all nine pro-lifers from the October 2020 sit-in, upgrading local trespassing offenses to federal charges of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. This law was enacted during the Clinton era precisely to enable draconian sentencing for peaceful pro-life civil disobedience.
In contrast, some members of Congress have noted the lack of action by the FBI and Department of Justice regarding numerous acts of violence, including the firebombing of pro-life pregnancy centers and vandalizing of Catholic churches, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
All nine pro-life defendants, convicted last September, face up to 11 years in prison and fines of up to $350,000 when they are sentenced on May 14 and 15 for their peaceful, prayerful action.
My brother John’s participation in this pro-life rescue, is consistent with a lifetime spent intervening for vulnerable people—from his professional service for those struggling with mental illness to volunteering at pro-life pregnancy centers to his caring interaction with homeless people on the street to his volunteering at pro-life pregnancy centers to assist women and their babies … without regard for the potentially devastating consequences to himself.
My brother and his fellow prisoners of conscience need our prayers.
They also need our presence of peaceful and prayerful witness for life and justice on May 14 and 15 at E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse, 333 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001.
Individual sentencings will begin at 9 a.m. and continue with a different defendant each hour. If you can possibly be there for any time during those two days, please consider doing so.
In any event, please pray for these brave rescuers, for their families, and for all the unborn babies they are trying to save.
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