President Donald Trump has pardoned 23 people convicted of blockading reproductive health clinics that provide abortions.
Eight of the 23 were convicted of blocking access to clinics in Michigan. The eight people in the Michigan case who received pardons are Joel Curry, Caroline Davis, Eva Edl, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Justin Phillips and Calvin and Eva Zastrow.
Curry, Davis, Gallagher, Idoni, and the Zastrows were also convicted of blockading clinics in other states.
The Justice Department has also issued an order to curtail most federal prosecutions of clinic blockaders going forward.
Erica Schekell is communications director for Planned Parenthood of Michigan. She said it's a frightening time.
"These pardons and acts of violence underlying them are really shameful. We know they're designed to intimidate Planned Parenthood patients and to keep them from getting health care," Schekell said. "And there are real dangerous consequences when the president of the United States minimizes attacks on reproductive health providers."
The Justice Department at the time of conviction of the Michigan defendants said they engaged in a conspiracy to block entrances to a Sterling Heights clinic so patients and employees could not enter.
DOJ officials said Calvin and Eva Zastrow followed a clinic employee around the building in order to prevent her from entering an emergency exit, and that Gallagher and Edl attempted to stall police in order to prolong the blockade of the clinic.
The Thomas More Society, a law firm that opposes abortion rights, asked Trump for 21 of the pardons. The group said the prosecutions were unjust.
In a statement, Steve Crampton, Thomas More Society senior counsel, said the pardoned individuals were unjustly imprisoned.
"These heroic peaceful pro-lifers were treated shamefully by Biden’s DOJ, with many of them branded felons and losing many rights that we take for granted as American citizens. Today, their precious freedom is restored."
