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Bevelyn Beatty Williams, a 33-year-old pro-life activist, was convicted in Manhattan on 22 February of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act after a nine-day jury trial before United States District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon, who went on to sentence her on 24 July to three years and five months in prison, along with two years of supervised release.

The Department of Justice stated that Williams was convicted of “interference, including by threats and force, with individuals seeking to obtain and provide” abortions. In June 2020 — before she was married or had a child — Williams had been preaching the Gospel outside an abortion clinic and was accused of leaning against the door, preventing a clinic worker from entering, and injuring another worker’s hand, which was trapped in the door.

Personal Experience

Born in Staten Island, New York, Williams had her first abortion when she was 15. According to her website, At Well Ministries, she then dropped out of high school and “continued on a self-destructive path centered around dating, drugs, and drinking. She would go on to have two more abortions during that time.”

Her website goes on to relate:

“Living a carefree lifestyle and needing a large sum of money to catch up on past due rent payments, she was caught and arrested for money laundering from her employer. While in jail awaiting bail for 7 days, she met a woman who had the God-given ability to see her internal struggle with depression that she had kept secret for quite some time.

The woman told her that if she did not change her life, the next step for her would be the grave. Bevelyn knew in her heart this was true and upon her release moved forward with the determination to choose a new path.”

This woman was Edmee Chavannes, an immigrant from France, who became Williams’ ministry partner. They focus on street preaching and homeless ministry. Williams further expanded into pro-life activism.

Now, Williams is happily married to Rickey Williams Jr. and the mother of Eleanor Grace Williams, a two-year-old girl.

Made an Example

The National Catholic Register reports:

“Williams is one of many pro-life activists who have been sentenced under the FACE Act in recent years, including several elderly people and a Catholic priest.”

Live Action correspondent Christina Marie Bennett posted on Instagram two days ago that Williams’ application for a stay of appeal was denied by her sentencing judge, and she was ordered to turn herself in at a federal prison.

 

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Nancy Flanders reported at Live Action:

‘Her attorney, in the meantime, will appeal the judge’s denial for her to stay home as her full appeal goes to the appellate court. She hopes she will be able to return home in the next month to be with her family as she appeals her full conviction.

According to Williams, the judge told her that she was a danger to the streets and society and that’s why she refused her request to remain at home during the appeals process.

“So all of this about me being violent, all of this stuff like that, no, no. Don’t let the media play you. I’m going to jail and my category of offense is ‘unlawful assembly’. … I’m going to jail for three and a half years for unlawful assembly. I believe that speaks for itself.”

… Hers is the second longest sentence a pro-lifer has received in a long series of convictions that have taken place over the last year.’

Williams wrote at her legal defence fundraiser:

“I was persecuted as a Christian standing for my beliefs when it comes to life. This is devastating news. Not only is this bond extensive for the accused crime, but she made it very clear in the courtroom that she was going to make an example out of me. The concern of being a young mother, and a stay-at-home mother, was completely disregarded.

She told me before sentencing me that I was young and that I would not be defined by my sentence, before making a conscious decision to take me away from my two-year-old daughter for three years. I am appealing my case, fighting for my freedom, and trying to support my family during this time of crises. We will fight this case all the way to the Supreme Court if that’s what it takes.”

She said before reporting to prison:

“The good news is ministry doesn’t stop in jail. Did I want to go? Of course not. Do I want to go? No, I don’t. I don’t want to go. Cried about it a thousand times. I don’t even think I have enough tears to cry about it. I wanna be with my husband and my daughter, but that’s not happening right now.”

Outrage

Several comments on Bennett’s Instagram post registered disbelief and outrage at the sentence.

April Brown wrote: “Heartbreaking. How the heck does anyone get 3.5 years for unlawful assembly?? I’ve stood in streets in a huge city with anarchists stopping traffic on a whim and controlling city blocks. Never saw an arrest. Let alone what has happened in cities around the nation since… this is persecution. No question.”

yk.vivia stated: “I’ve seen countless pro-Hamas students on my college campus block Jewish students from entering, spit at them, shove them, and make violent threats. Not even a suspension for them, let alone an arrest and jail time. Yet for this woman, 3 1/2 years??? What a time we live in.”

Heather Ede lamented: “And yet the abortionists, committing some of the most heinous acts on earth, walk free. This is absolutely infuriating.”

Nicole Johnson observed: “Of course the judge is a Biden appointee. Also used to work for the Girl Scouts of America, apparently. This definitely checks. Interesting that it doesn’t seem like the FACE Act has been used for very many BLM or Pro-Palestine protesters.”

Catherine Herring exclaimed: “3.5 years for ‘Unlawful Assembly’, yet my now ex-husband received 180 days in jail for poisoning me with abortion pills 7 times in an attempt to murder our child. IN TEXAS. What has happened to our legal system?”

Audrey Brown opined: “Christians can’t afford to sit out this election. If they do… we will definitely see more of this happening.”

 

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Across the Pond

Over in the United Kingdom, a British army veteran has been convicted of praying silently near an abortion clinic. The National Catholic Register reports:

“Adam Smith-Connor had approached a British Pregnancy Advisory Service abortion facility in Bournemouth, in the southwest English county of Dorset, in November 2022. He intended to pray for his unborn son, who had died in an abortion he helped procure at a similar facility more than two decades ago.

[He] has been found guilty of praying silently outside of an abortion facility, with the pro-life advocate facing a near-$12,000 fine over the verdict.”

ADF UK attorney Jeremiah Igunnubole called the decision “a legal turning point of immense proportions.”

He said, “A man has been convicted today because of the content of his thoughts — his prayers to God — on the public streets of England. We can hardly sink any lower in our neglect of basic fundamental freedoms of free speech and thought.”

In Australia, as in the UK, we have exclusion zones around abortion clinics. In March 2018, three Australian men in their 70s who were arrested in February 2017 for silently praying outside an abortion clinic in Canberra had their charges dismissed after refusing to pay $750 fines and pointing out that they were neither visibly nor audibly protesting.

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Image courtesy of Live Action.