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

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Four anti-abortion activists convicted in January of criminal conspiracy for their role in blocking a Tennessee clinic in 2021 were sentenced this week to terms ranging from six months in prison to three years of supervised release. The sentences were lower than what prosecutors had sought, and U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger said she took into account the defendants’ good works in their communities.

While the judge acknowledged that their actions were based on sincere religious beliefs, she said that was no excuse for breaking the law. The defendants used their religious fervor to “give themselves permission to ignore the pain they caused others and to ignore their own humanity,” Trauger said.

Nearly 200 supporters, many of them parents with children, gathered and prayed outside the federal courthouse in Nashville ahead of sentencing hearings Tuesday and Wednesday. They also packed a courtroom where proceedings were being livestreamed, filling the pews and spilling onto the floor and into the hallway.

The convictions came after a blockade of the Carafem reproductive health clinic in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, a town 17 miles (27.36 kilometers) east of Nashville, nearly a year before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Organizers used social media to promote and livestream actions that they said would prevent the clinic from performing abortions, according to testimony. They also intended the video to serve as a training tool for other activists, Trauger found.

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

In total, 11 people have been convicted of offenses related to the blockade. The four convicted this week are among six people convicted of both violating the federal Freedom of Access Act at clinic entrances and more serious conspiracy charges for their roles as organizers. Lawyers for the defendants have argued that prosecutors went too far in charging them with a felony that carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $260,000.

In the end, Trauger ordered much lighter sentences. Paul Vaughn and Dennis Green were sentenced to three years of supervised release. Coleman Boyd was sentenced to five years of probation. Calvin Zastrow, considered one of the main organizers, was sentenced to six months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Boyd, the only one of the four whom Trauger said could afford it, was fined $10,000.

Trauger had previously agreed to defer sentencing until September for the other two 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 a 2020 blockade of a clinic in Washington, D.C.

Caroline Davis, one of the defendants, who pleaded guilty in October to misdemeanor charges and cooperated with prosecutors, was sentenced in April to three years of probation. Four others were convicted in April of misdemeanor charges for blocking the clinic’s main door so no patients could enter. Police repeatedly asked them to leave or move, but they refused and were eventually arrested. They were scheduled to be sentenced 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.