Editor’s Note: John Hinshaw and Jonathan Darnel are being held in federal custody at the Alexandria Detention Center, Alexandria, Virginia, along with six other pro-life activists for participating in a traditional pro-life rescue of the unborn at a late-term abortion center in Washington, D.C. They face a potential 10 years in prison as they await sentencing in May by pro-abortion Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, under charges of violations of the FACE Act and “conspiracy against rights”.
LifeSiteNews extensive coverage of the D.C. Face Act trials be found here. The following is a joint statement by John Hinshaw and Jonathan Darnel.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – As the Pro-Life Movement heartens us with its increasing unity behind #justiceforthefive and against our unjust persecution, we reach out in this election year with a clarification of what our goals should be.
Certainly, EVERY pro-lifer should understand that sending Joe Biden home to retirement is essential to the protection of babies as well as basic human decency. Human indecency has ever been Biden’s career, as pro-lifers have known since the 1970s. And he has filled his administration with governmental terrorists as narcissistic as himself.
His Department of Justice, led by the perjurious Merrick Garland, and the FBI, led by the equally perjurious Christopher Wray, are the foremost actors in the unprecedented Conspiracy of Governmental Terror we are currently living with, and the same conspiracy has sent us away. Pro-lifers are not their only victims, as this administration goes after all its political enemies without restraint.
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This leads us to the campaign of Donald Trump, which has also been illegally attacked by the criminal behavior of government prosecutors, federal and state. But, before pro-lifers commit our support to Mr. Trump, we need to be clear what we need from him on the pro-life front.
Efforts have recently been undertaken to secure from Mr. Trump a commitment to RELEASE those of us being held, awaiting sentencing by the Federal Government for peaceful pro-life rescues. While our release would be valuable, pro-lifers must be mindful why vengeful Hillary Clinton and Janet Reno federalized prosecutions against pro-life rescuers back in the 1990s.
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Federal prosecution almost guarantees conviction, threatens many more years of imprisonment and, most importantly, guarantees governmental control of our activities following release from prison. This is done by monstrous fines and almost unending probation and parole — fixing unacceptable restrictions on our movement, association and advocacy. Any suspicion of us violating these conditions or not paying fines can mean immediate imprisonment.
Those of us awaiting sentencing in the upcoming months (May 14 and 15 in Washington, July 2 in Tennessee) fully expect our frothing prosecutors to demand these additional punishments, and our enabling, corrupt judge has not denied them yet. Witness our immediate imprisonment upon conviction.
RELATED: Pro-lifer jailed under FACE ACT: Changing laws is not enough. We must make abortion unthinkable
Therefore, what we need from Donald Trump is NOT a commitment to release us from prison but a three-fold commitment to:
- Grant a FULL PARDON of all charges and convictions, which WILL immediately release us and protect us from any attached penalties.
- A commitment to de-federalize prosecution of pro-life rescuers, thereby bringing another Hillary Clinton policy to an end. This is done by reforming the Dept of Justice to pursue ACTUAL terrorists and criminals and leave political opponents alone. Pro-life rescuers are in the great American tradition of civil disobedience in the same vein as Thoreau and Dr. King. These are not federal issues. In addition, [a] Trump FBI MUST stop providing private security services to local abortionists, as they did for the butcher Santangelo.
- EVERY DOJ and FBI employee who had ANYTHING to do with pro-life persecutions must never hold a job in Federal Law Enforcement again, even the agents who conducted raids – “obeying orders” – showing themselves unfit to wield such power.
Now, in fairness, we acknowledge that Mr. Trump HAS given a public, verbal commitment to pardon us at the Pray, Vote, Stand Summit in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 15, 2023, but a FULL commitment to our 3-point proposal given above, should be south NOW, when he’s seeking pro-life support.
We are aware that Mr. Trump has helped the Pro-life movement before, but we do not forget that, at the time of our rescue, October 2020, it was HIS FBI providing protection for Santangelo – arriving quickly on the scene, coordinating arrests and interviewing us after arrest (without any lawyers present!). And Christopher Wray was HIS appointment for FBI Director.
Since Mr. Trump seems very sensitive to being reminded of his mistakes, we are not suggesting that pro-lifers should point these out to him, but pro-lifers need to be mindful of them while pushing for these important commitments.
Let’s help him make no more mistakes such as these.
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