U.S. Abortion Landscape
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Prosecutors said the defendants had used their bodies, furniture, chains and ropes to block the doors to an abortion clinic in Washington in 2020 and had livestreamed their actions on Facebook.
Nine people who blocked access to an abortion clinic in Washington in October 2020 have been charged with federal civil rights offenses, prosecutors said on Wednesday, about six months after the Justice Department signaled it would use a 1994 law to prosecute such cases across the country.
Prosecutors said the nine had used their bodies, furniture, chains and ropes to block clinic doors and had livestreamed their actions on Facebook.
In an indictment returned by a federal grand jury, the nine defendants were charged with engaging in a conspiracy to prevent the clinic from providing reproductive health services and to prevent patients from receiving those services, prosecutors said.
They were also charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a 1994 law that makes it a crime to threaten, obstruct or injure a person seeking access to a reproductive health clinic or to damage clinic property.
If convicted, the defendants would each face up to 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release and fines of $350,000, prosecutors said.
In September, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland signaled that the department would use the FACE Act to protect the constitutional right to abortion, days after a Texas law enacting a near-complete ban on the procedure went into effect.
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9 Who Blocked Abortion Clinic Are Charged With Federal Offenses (Published 2022) – The New York Times
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