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The arrest of Joan Andrews-Bell of Montague and eight other demonstrators was originally live-streamed on Facebook during an October 2020 protest that they dubbed “The Pink Rose Rescue” and federal authorities called an “invasion."
Justice Department officials on Wednesday, March 30 announced the return of an indictment charging the defendants with criminally conspiring to “injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate patients and employees in violation of their federal rights to seek and provide reproductive health services.”
They are also charged with violating the U.S. Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) for using force to interfere with the clinic's services.
The protestors converged on Washington from various northeast and midwestern states in an attempt to intimidate patients and staff by blockading the building, according to the indictment.
One of the demonstrators posed as a patient and booked a 9 a.m. appointment, the indictment says. When the clinic eventually opened, the group forced its way in, injuring a nurse, it says.
Once inside, they began blocking the doors, federal authorities said. Five protestors chained themselves together on chairs to block the treatment area, according to the indictment. Others blocked the employee entrance to halt patients. Another kept anyone from entering the waiting room.
“(The) rescuers are doing their job. They’re not allowing women to enter the abortion clinic,” Jonathan Darnel, who was live-streaming the event, told Facebook followers. “As long as they’re in there, no women can go in to kill their children.
"We have people intervening physically with their bodies to prevent women from entering the clinic to murder their children," Darnel said.
The stream shows police removing the demonstrators. Bell, who was in a wheelchair, was gently pushed by an officer to a waiting police cruiser (see video above).
The non-profit DC Area Anti-Abortion Advocac, group, which presented the stream, lauded the “indomitable” Andrews-Bell.
The Sussex County resident "has been putting herself between babies and those who wish to murder them for decades, and suffering the consequences,” the group said. “She will be vindicated someday."
Named in the federal indictment along with Bell and Darnel were:
- John Hinshaw, 67, of Levittown, Long Island;
- Jay Smith, 32, of Freeport, Long Island;
- William Goodman, 52, of the Bronx;
- Paulette Harlow, 73, and Jean Marshall, 72, both of Kingston, Massachusetts;
- Lauren Handy, 28, of Alexandria, Virginia;
- Heather Idoni, 61, of Linden, Michigan.
The FBI’s Washington, D.C. Field Office is investigating the incident with help from bureau field offices in Newark, New York City, Boston and Detroit, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
Also assisting are the U.S. attorneys officers for the districts of New Jersey, the Eastern (Brooklyn) and Southern (Manhattan) districts of New York, Massachusetts and Michigan.
The case is being prosecuted by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
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