CORRECTION, June 4, 2024: Paulette Harlow and other pro-life activists were arrested during a prayer and protest action in the waiting area inside a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic in October 2022. An earlier version of this article described the location of their protest incorrectly.
America’s two-tiered justice system continues to rear its ugly head.
According to the Washington Examiner, 75-year-old Paulette Harlow was sentenced on Friday by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to two years in prison for praying inside a Washington D.C. abortion clinic four years ago.
According to the pro-life group Live Action, Harlow’s husband, John, delivered a statement to the court declaring he feared his wife would die behind bars without his care.
Kollar-Kotelly’s response, from Live Action’s report, can only be described as a taunt; she said she hoped Harlow would “make an effort to remain alive” as it was a “tenet of [Harlow’s] religion.”
Harlow, along with other pro-life activists, went to the Washington Surgi-clinic on Oct. 22, 2020, day to pray the children of those expecting mothers who were seeking to end their lives would be saved. According to an Associated Press report from the time, the activists occupied the clinic’s waiting room, blocking entrances to areas where the procedure was performed.
A total of nine activists, including Harlow, were arrested on charges of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
Under the act, one cannot engage in, “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.”
You can see police making the arrests of the pro-life activists below.
Here is a video of the protest this poor woman is going to prison for. pic.twitter.com/xDcchPfQ7R
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) June 3, 2024
In a statement Friday, the DOJ described the events surrounding Harlow’s arrest, stating that she and fellow protesters “forcefully entered the clinic and set about blockading two clinic doors using their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes.”
“Once the blockade was established, they live-streamed their activities. The evidence also showed that the defendants violated the FACE Act by using a physical obstruction to injure, intimidate and interfere with the clinic’s employees and a patient, because they were providing or obtaining reproductive health services.”
In a May 15 statement, following the sentencing of seven of Harlow’s co-defendants, the DOJ vowed to protect “reproductive health care.”
“The seven defendants executed an extensive blockade of a reproductive care clinic, including faking a patient appointment to enter the facility,” Assistant Director Michael Nordwall of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division said in the statement.
“FACE Act violations are distressing to anyone attempting to safely access reproductive healthcare, and, in this case, unfortunately resulted in the physical injury of a nurse. The FBI continues our work to ensure everyone has unimpeded access to reproductive health care facilities.”
“The Justice Department will continue to protect both patients seeking reproductive health services and providers of those services. We will hold accountable those who seek to interfere with access to reproductive health services in our country,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the statement.
Should Paulette Harlow be freed?
The DOJ will approach protesters with zeal and efficiency when it’s in the name of “reproductive health.”
Why can’t it be bothered to go after countless left-wing activists who plague our streets and harass us with destruction of property, violence, and murder?
When rioters and terrorists take to the streets, they are celebrated as champions of all that is good.
Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters infamously told her supporters to harass the Trump administration officials in 2018.
In 2020, the country saw countless examples of Black Lives Matter and antifa terrorism after George Floyd’s death as anyone looting, destroying, assaulting, and even killing was defended for expressing supposed righteous indignation over Floyd’s death.
Not only politicians, but establishment media outlets bent over backward for these people. Remember CNN captioning footage in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as “fiery but mostly peaceful” as buildings burned?
These are the real criminals the DOJ should pursue. Americans praying that children are not murdered should not land high on its list of priorities.
Harlow’s case is a travesty and only further proves the U.S. justice system, in the hands of progressive Democrats, hates conservative values.