Pro-Lifers to Appear in Court in Little Rock on February 6, Face Federal Charges in Tennessee

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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 are slated to appear in court in Little Rock on February 6 on misdemeanor criminal trespassing at an abortion facility.

Some face federal charges from the Biden Administration’s Justice Department as well.

On January 15, 2021, LRPD arrested a group of pro-life activists for blocking the entrance at Little Rock Family Planning Services — Arkansas’ only surgical abortion facility.

At least six police cruisers and numerous officers responded to the situation and arrested the pro-lifers while an estimated 30 pro-life advocates prayed and protested from the public sidewalks outside the facility.

Family Council obtained redacted police reports and audio recordings following the incident showing LRPD arrested Eva Edl of South Carolina; Chet Gallagher Tennessee; Dennis Green Virginia; Calvin Zastrow of Michigan; Emily Nurnberg of Kansas; and Heather Iddoni of Michigan.

Police reports indicate that the pro-lifers were blocking the front entrance to the abortion facility and did not leave the area when told to do so by law enforcement. As a result, all seven were arrested and charged with criminal trespassing.

Court records show the pro-lifers were convicted in February of 2022. Each was ordered to pay a $350 fine.

However, their attorney appealed the conviction, and the pro-lifers have a February 6, 2023, court date.

In the meantime, five of the defendants also have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Tennessee for allegedly violating the Free Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

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

A federal indictment unsealed on October 5 alleges that Gallagher, Iddoni, Zastrow, Green, and Edl blocked a Tennessee abortion facility entrance in March of 2021.

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

If convicted, they face up to 11 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. The federal case against them is currently set to go to trial January 16, 2024.

It is worth pointing out that the U.S. Supreme Court has reversed Roe v. Wade and abortion is prohibited in Arkansas except to save the life of the mother. Little Rock Family Planning Services is no longer open for business. It is unclear at this point what bearing those facts might have on these cases.

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As Many as a Thousand Babies in Arkansas Will See Their First Christmas Thanks to Reversal of Roe v. Wade

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In 1979, John Denver recorded these words in the Christmas song, “When the River Meets the Sea.”

Like a baby when it is sleeping in its loving mother’s arms,

What a newborn baby dreams is a mystery.

But his life will find a purpose and in time he’ll understand

When the river meets the sea.

I don’t know if newborn babies dream about Christmas, but this year Family Council estimates that as many as a thousand babies will live to see their first Christmas thanks to pro-life laws you have helped us support. Those laws saved them from being aborted this year.

On June 24 the U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic Dobbs v. Jackson decision overturning the Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey abortion decisions from 1973 and 1992. Within a matter of hours, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge certified that Arkansas’ law generally prohibiting abortion was in full effect. Planned Parenthood and Little Rock Family Planning Services immediately stopped performing abortions.

In recent years, Arkansas has aborted, on average, approximately 3,000 unborn children annually. Given that history, Family Council estimates that as many as one thousand unborn children were saved from abortion from June 24 through today.

To put it another way, those baby girls and boys will get to live, be born, and celebrate their first Christmas because of Arkansas’s pro-life laws. In January we expect that some lawmakers will come to the Capitol Building in Little Rock with plans to weaken those good laws. We cannot let that happen.

If our pro-life laws remain in effect, they will save as many as 3,000 children from abortion in 2023. We must continue to stand for life. If we do, thousands of other babies can live to enjoy Christmas this year, next year — and for many more Christmases to come

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Federal Judge Says Satanic Temple’s Lawsuit Over Pro-Abortion Billboards Rejected in Arkansas Can Proceed

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Last week U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks chose not to dismiss a lawsuit by The Satanic Temple over a set of pro-abortion billboards that the atheist organization wanted to place near pregnancy resource centers in Fayetteville, Springdale, and Little Rock.

In September of 2020 Lamar Media Corporation rejected four designs for billboards that falsely claimed The Satanic Temple’s “religious abortion ritual averts many state restrictions” on abortion.

One of the proposed billboards claimed pregnancy complications are the sixth most common cause of death among women between the ages of 20 and 34, concluding that “abortions save lives.”

Arkansas’s pro-life laws do not contain exceptions for any “religious abortion ritual,” and courts have not recognized a religious right to abortion.

As a result, Lamar reportedly rejected the billboard designs for being “misleading and offensive.”

Last February the organization filed a federal lawsuit against Lamar in Arkansas.

Among other things, the lawsuit argues that “[the Satanic Temple] holds the view that some abortion restrictions substantially interfere with its religious beliefs. Particularly, abortion restrictions . . . interfere with [the group’s tenets regarding] bodily autonomy and . . . [are] not grounded in science.”

According to court documents, The Satanic Temple also alleges that rejecting the billboards is a form of religious discrimination.

Lamar’s attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the Western District of Arkansas is not the proper venue for the court case and that the Satanic Temple has not suffered enough damages to warrant the lawsuit. However, last week Judge Brooks decided not to dismiss the case.

It’s worth pointing out that the Satanic Temple is an atheist organization with a history of stirring up controversy in Arkansas.

The group has opposed Arkansas’ monument honoring the Ten Commandments and is part of a lawsuit to have the monument removed from the capitol grounds.

In August of 2018 the Satanic Temple held a small protest in front of the State Capitol, and parked a flatbed trailer holding a 7½-foot statue of baphomet — a satanic figure — in front of the Capitol Building.

The Satanic Temple had previously threatened to put the baphomet monument on the capitol grounds itself. However, nothing ever came of the threat, because monuments require legislative approval.

The Satanic Temple has unsuccessfully tried to persuade federal courts to recognize abortion as a religious ritual. So far courts have refused to do so.

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