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

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Above: A Little Rock police officer arrests a pro-lifer for trespassing outside Little Rock Family Planning Services on January 15, 2021.

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.

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Freedom From Religion Foundation Chastises Crawford County Sheriff Over Inmate Baptisms

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The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent a complaint to the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office over baptisms that recently occurred at the county’s correctional facility.

In a press release, the atheist organization wrote,

FFRF has been alerted that the Sheriff’s Office recently hosted a baptism for inmates in partnership with Kibler Baptist Church. It then promoted the government-sponsored religious activity and its preference for Christianity on Facebook, celebrating how “38 incarcerated men and women accepted Jesus Christ behind bars.”

Following the complaint, 40/29 News reported that the baptism was organized by jail chaplains who minister to inmates inside the detention center and that it was inmates who made the request. A sheriff’s deputy said The Facebook post was taken down to remove any confusion.

This isn’t the first time the Freedom From Religion Foundation has been active in Arkansas.

Last fall the atheist group issued a statement celebrating the defeat of religious freedom amendment Issue 3, which narrowly failed at the ballot box in Arkansas.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has opposed public prayer at meetings and gatherings in Arkansas, and has filed a lawsuit to have a monument of the Ten Commandments removed from the Arkansas Capitol grounds.

In 2017 the group demanded that Governor Hutchinson stop sharing Bible verses on his Facebook page.

In 2016 the foundation went after Washington County election officials for using churches as polling places.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has even complained about the fact that that Arkansas’ public school students can study the Bible academically — even though it is one of the oldest texts in existence and has had a profound influence on human history.

It’s worth noting that across the board, groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation tend to threaten lawsuits. If people stand their ground, these organizations rarely follow through by filing a lawsuit.

Religious freedom is a fundamental right in America, and groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation infringe that liberty when they work to purge the free exercise of religion from public life.

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

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