Justin Phillips and several other pro-life advocates staged a sit-in outside the doors of an abortion facility in Sterling Heights, Michigan, on August 27, 2020, blocking access for a pregnant woman for approximately an hour.
As a result, Phillips now faces the possibility of more than a decade in federal prison, according to his attorney and others familiar with the case. However, for Phillips and others accused nationwide of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, hope emerged this week that President-Elect Donald Trump’s administration might temper the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) recent focus on prosecuting peaceful pro-life demonstrators.
The FACE Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, prohibits obstructing access to or providing so-called “reproductive health services.”
Phillips and his co-defendants have been awaiting sentencing, but during a recent status conference, U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Leitman of Michigan’s Eastern District instructed attorneys to pause proceedings.
In an order issued Wednesday, Judge Leitman halted all post-trial briefings until further notice and rescheduled the next status conference for no later than March 24, 2025—well after Trump’s anticipated inauguration.
David Peters, an attorney with the Pacific Justice Institute representing Phillips, told The Federalist that the judge directed DOJ prosecutors to consult with the incoming leadership of the Civil Rights Division and the Trump administration before advancing the case.
Peters expressed optimism that the charges under the FACE Act might be dismissed by the new administration, which would spare the defendants from criminal records. “A dismissal before sentencing is far better than a pardon,” he explained.
“I think the judges know it’s a political thing,” Phillips told The Federalist in an interview. “The judicial system is supposed to seek for justice. It is really a crazy experience, seeing how wicked the justice system is.”
He recounted the event that has led to the possibility of his imprisonment.
“We were worshiping the Lord and just trying to stop babies from being killed there, by just sitting in front of the door,” Phillips said. “When they told me, it was time to go or I get arrested, I stayed there. And then once they said, OK, you’re arrested, I stood up and they arrested me.”
Michigan resident Phillips says he has witnessed hundreds of pregnant women choose to keep their babies since joining the abortion rescue community.
“When Jesus saved me, he gave me a lot of love for him and for our neighbors and opened my eyes to so many of our neighbors that are killed and just forgotten,” Phillips said. “We know where it happens. I started going out to the abortion clinics back in 2017, and I’m there to offer help to moms and point to the Lord. I’ve Seen God save hundreds and hundreds of babies and help a lot of people. The rescue was just really an act of worship, to lay my life down as Christ laid his life down for me.”
Two and a half years after the sit-in at Sterling Heights, the FBI indicted Phillips and seven others present that day for violating the FACE Act. By that time, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision had overturned Roe v. Wade, and President Joe Biden had created the Reproductive Rights Task Force within the Department of Justice (DOJ). This task force became a tool for the DOJ to intensify enforcement of the FACE Act, leading to retroactive investigations of incidents at abortion facilities.
Before the Dobbs decision, FACE Act arrests were rare. As previously reported in The Epoch Times, DOJ data showed that between 2011 and 2021, only 17 individuals faced criminal charges under the FACE Act. In contrast, the DOJ charged 26 people with FACE violations in 2022 alone, with additional cases surfacing since then.
Attorneys involved in these cases have noted a recent trend of the DOJ adding charges of Conspiracy Against Rights to FACE Act violations. Together, these charges carry a maximum penalty of 11 years in federal prison.
In February 2023, along with Phillips, the DOJ indicted Calvin and Eva Zastrow, Heather Idoni, and Joel Curry, all from Michigan; Chester Gallagher from Tennessee; and Eva Edl from South Carolina. Caroline Davis from Georgia was also named in the indictment but later cooperated with the DOJ, testifying against the others to reduce her charges.
Several peaceful pro-lifers, including Idoni and Calvin Zastrow, are already serving prison sentences related to other FACE Act cases. On the campaign trail, former President Donald Trump pledged that his administration would “rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner unjustly victimized by the Biden regime,” including FACE Act defendants, to reunite them with their families.
