(LifeSiteNews) — On Wednesday John Hinshaw knew that he would be a free man today, but he didn’t know that he and his fellow imprisoned pro-lifers would already be pardoned.
President Donald Trump signed a presidential pardon for Hinshaw and 22 other incarcerated pro-life activists yesterday afternoon.
Today, Friday, January 24, was the day that Hinshaw’s sentence was to run out. When he granted LifeSiteNews an interview on Wednesday via the federal prison email system, he had ceased to hope that he and the other jailed pro-lifers would be pardoned before today, but he was convinced President Trump would keep his promise.
“I deduce that Trump will pardon us while speaking at the March for Life,” Hinshaw stated at the time. “It’s too good an opportunity for a showman, such as he is, to miss.”
“Obviously, I will not be at the March for Life,” he added. “I will be in transit on the way home. I wish I could be there, but I have to admit, it is much more important that Trump be there.”
It has been confirmed that President Trump will send a video message to the March for Life today. Vice President JD Vance will attend and speak in person.
READ: President Trump pardons pro-life prisoners
When LifeSiteNews asked Hinshaw how he was feeling about his impending release, he first hit a somber note before recalling his happiness on Trump’s second Inauguration Day:
This is probably going to sound strange, but I am experiencing a range of emotions right now, and none of them is joy. The Evil One, who also has some reach into here [in prison], is having his last stab at me, and a number of annoying incidents have cropped up. It was the same before my sentencing.
Inauguration Day was the happiest day I have spent in here, listening to Trump highlight all the things he needs to change and criticizing the tyranny that our country descended to. To know that a strong majority of my countrymen support him is gratifying and celebrating the release of the January 6 hostages during that Monday night was great.
I fully expect a rush of joy when I walk free, but the mix of sadness for the horrible suffering that was caused only by the hatred of the wicked is pre-eminent now. It is not like Christmas, where the waiting and anticipation is half the fun.
Hinshaw’s prison sentence followed his participation in a peaceful rescue mission at the late-term abortion clinic operated by Cesar Santangelo in Washington, D.C., in October 2020. After he and a few of his fellow rescuers entered the abortuary, staff took the unusual step of calling the FBI after calling municipal police, Hinshaw told LifeSiteNews.
“The FBI [agent] was on site as quickly as the DC police, and he supervised the arrest,” Hinshaw wrote.
“We were held all day and interrogated by the FBI. We were finally released around midnight.”
Over a year later, the FBI took Hinshaw and other pro-lifers back into custody.
“The pre-dawn raid by 9 armed FBI agents on March 30, 2022, meant I was in custody at the federal courthouse on Long Island until 10:00 PM that night,” he recalled.
“Following our conviction on August 29, 2023, we were immediately incarcerated and taken to Alexandria, Virginia County Jail.”
Hinshaw was kept there almost a year. On August 22, 2024, he was sent to the Bureau of Prisons transit camp in Lewisburg Pennsylvania, where he remained until September 11. On that day he was sent to a federal minimum-security prison: Deven in Ayer, Massachusetts.
“That amounts to 17 full months of incarceration out of the 21-month sentence that I received,” he calculated.
Hinshaw is a veteran of Operation Rescue, and he told LifeSiteNews that he had been arrested 27 times between 1988 and 1994. He wasn’t arrested again until that fateful October day at the Washington Surgi-Clinic although that wasn’t the last time.
“While my government was conspiring, unbeknownst to be, against my rights, I rescued twice more, in West Chester, Pennsylvania and in Manhasset, Long Island,” Hinshaw wrote. “That would total 30 arrests for pro-life rescue.”
Some of the rescuers have described their time in jail as if they were religious retreats. Without describing his incarceration in those terms, Hinshaw nevertheless shared his spiritual insights with LifeSiteNews.
READ: 2025 March for Life: List of events taking place
“My first spiritual insight during this ordeal is not new to most Christians, but not being the sharpest spiritual intellect, it was surprising to me how close God became to me and how concrete were His actions. In so many small, daily ways, He made His Presence felt,” he wrote.
“Through these interactions, Christ drew me along the way, leaving behind the ruins of a dead city filled with injustice, towards a real, active, lifegiving Grace. We left behind my anger at the injustice and opened me to where I have to go. He slowly introduced me to repentance, ransom, expiation, and that ‘deeper magic from the dawn of time’ that C.S. Lewis gave us from Narnia.”
Hinshaw’s immediate plans on getting out of prison were to meet his two new granddaughters, Charlotte Millie and Maisie Grace, born during his captivity. He looked forward also to visiting his 3.5-year-old granddaughter, who had spoken to him over the prison phone, and his sole grandson, who will turn 2 next week.
“I will be at his birthday party this year,” Hinshaw promised, with a few exclamation points before becoming serious again.
“Then, of course, I will explain in greater detail to my children what went on here. They know now of the depravity and destruction of wicked men and women. I can explain how God uses that to further His Will on earth.”
Hinshaw envisioned such paperwork as renewing licenses, getting off probation, presenting himself to Social Security and Medicare and “returning to ‘normal’ life again.”
“I can’t wait for real coffee,” he added.
Hinshaw will decide where and when (and if) he returns to work and plans to pursuit the pro-life initiatives he decided on in prison. He intends to “sit with my wonderful, courageous wife, whom I have loved since I first met her in 1979,” and about whom he enthused.
“From that St. Patrick’s Day in an Irish pub, we have never gone so long without seeing each other. From that first night, when I could not believe that such a beautiful woman was talking to me, to today, when I cannot believe she actually married me and gave me six children!”
But the most striking aspect of the interview was Hinshaw’s rock-solid conviction that, however delayed, the presidential pardon would come.
“I always believed Trump would pardon us since his first promise, 3 weeks after our conviction and incarceration, at the Pray, Stand, Vote conference in Washington D.C.,” Hinshaw wrote. “He has since promised pardons for us on several occasions, so I never felt he had an alternative to pardoning us.”
Brenda Hinshaw wrote to LifeSiteNews Friday morning and reported that her husband had been released “around 12:30 this morning” and greeted by one of their children. Brenda spoke to John at 1 AM and wrote he will arrive home later today.