The FBI has arrested and charged four pro-life activists after a March 2021 “abortion rescue” event at an abortion clinic in Tennessee.
It is not shocking to see the Department of Justice use the strong arm of the law to harass pro-life supporters while ignoring the literal fire-bombing of pro-life pregnancy centers and a wave of vandalism against said centers in the wake of the SCOTUS decision to scrap Roe v. Wade. What is shocking, however, is that one of those activists is an 87-year-old concentration camp survivor.
Live Action reports that activist Eva Edl has been fighting for pro-life causes since 1988. She compares abortion clinics to what she saw happening in the “death camps.”
Pro-life activist Eva Edl was one of four pro-lifers charged with violating the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) this month in relation to a March 2021 abortion facility rescue at C arafem in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. The event was aimed at reaching abortion-minded women in hopes of helping them to choose life for their babies with confidence. Edl is 87 years old and is a German survivor of a communist prisoner-of-war concentration camp during World War II. Following her escape from that camp, she began a legacy of fighting for the right to life for all human beings.
“The first time I realized there were abortion clinics in our country was in 1988,” she said, according to a previous Live Action News report. “I said to my husband, ‘these are the death camps of America.’ I saw people sitting in front of abortion clinics in Atlanta, and I’ve been involved ever since.”
According to reports, the “rescue” operation was a peaceful demonstration. Activists simply stood in the hallway of an office building that is a shared common space for multiple medical offices. There they prayed and sang.
Several were arrested by local police that day and were later released after posting bail for misdemeanor trespass charges. (Read more here and here.) Then on October 5, 2022 (a year and a half later), the FBI came calling.
The Department of Justice put out a press release stating the individuals are charged with using “force and physical obstruction.” It also laid out possible sentencing.
The indictment further alleges that on March 5, 2021, the 11 individuals, aided and abetted by one another, used force and physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, and interfere with employees of the clinic and a patient who was seeking reproductive health services.
If convicted, those charged with conspiracy face up to 11 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. Others face up to one year in prison for the misdemeanor offense and fines of up to $10,000.
This case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by the Civil Rights Coordinator of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and trial Attorneys of the Department’s Civil Rights Division.
An indictment is merely an accusation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The thought of an 87-year-old concentration camp survivor going to prison for praying for the life of an infant is horrifying. This is Joe Biden’s America, and this is literally Joe Biden’s administration…and it is all truly pathetic given the actual violence being visited upon right-wing groups by the Antifa set.
There is a silver lining to this story. Since the collapse of Roe v. Wade, the Carafem abortion clinic, where the arrests were made, has been forced out of business.