Pro-Lifers to Appear in Pulaski County Court on Trespassing Charges in December

Six pro-lifers accused of criminal trespassing are scheduled to appear in Pulaski County Circuit Court in December.

Eva Edl of South Carolina; Chet Gallagher of Tennessee; Dennis Green of Virginia; Calvin Zastrow of Michigan; Emily Nurnberg of Kansas; and Heather Iddoni of Michigan face misdemeanor criminal trespassing charges for allegedly blocking the entrance to Little Rock Family Planning Services — a now-shuttered surgical abortion facility in Little Rock — on January 15, 2021.

Court records show the pro-lifers were convicted in February of 2022, and each was ordered to pay a $350 fine. However, their attorney appealed the convictions, and court records now indicate their next hearing in the case will be December 4.

Family Council has been tracking the trespassing allegations in the case since 2021.

In separate cases, authorities with the U.S. Department of Justice have indicted some of the defendants for allegedly violating the Free Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act in Tennessee, Michigan, and Washington, D.C.

The FACE Act is a federal law generally intended to prevent people from obstructing abortion facility entrances.

A federal indictment unsealed last October alleges that Gallagher, Iddoni, Zastrow, Green, and Edl blocked a Tennessee abortion facility entrance in March of 2021.

Another federal indictment alleges that Zastrow, Gallagher, Iddoni, and Edl blocked the entrance to an abortion facility in Sterling Heights, Michigan, in August of 2020.

Iddoni also has been charged with violating the FACE Act in a separate federal case at an abortion facility in Washington, D.C.

If convicted in federal court, they face up to 11 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has reversed Roe v. Wade, abortion is prohibited in Arkansas except to save the life of the mother, and Little Rock Family Planning Services is shut down.

It is unclear at this point what bearing those facts might have on these cases.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.