8 people indicted on conspiracy charges and accused of blocking a Michigan reproductive clinic to 'oppress and intimidate patients and employees'
JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images; Insider
- Eight people are accused of blocking the entrance to a reproductive health care clinic.
- They now face charges of engaging in a civil rights conspiracy and violating the FACE Act.
- "You can arrest us, you can do whatever you want, but I will be back," one individual said.
Eight people have been formally charged after authorities accused them of forming a "blockade" at a family planning center in Michigan, the Department of Justice announced in a Wednesday press release.
In August 2020, the individuals — Calvin Zastrow, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Caroline Davis, Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Eva Edl, and Eva Zastrow — blocked an entrance to Northland Family Planning Clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan, where abortion is legal, the indictment alleges.
Gallagher had also posted online about the blockade ahead of time and Curry live-streamed as it happened.
"We're in Sterling Heights, outside of the murder mill, to save children. Sitting next to brothers and sisters. Block the door," Curry said in the live stream, per the indictment.
The individuals are facing charges of engaging in a civil rights conspiracy and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The 1994 statute protects patients of clinics, the clinic workers, and the clinics themselves by making it a federal offense to obstruct clinic access and threaten or commit violence against workers and patients.
"The indictment also alleges that all eight defendants violated the FACE Act by using physical obstruction to intimidate and interfere with the Sterling Heights clinic's employees and patients, because the clinic's employees were providing, and the patients were seeking, reproductive health services," the press release reads.
Two of the eight individuals, Idoni and Edl, also face another charge of violating the FACE Act in a separate blockade incident that occurred in April 2021 in Saginaw, Michigan, according to the DOJ.
"You can arrest us, you can do whatever you want, but I will be back, wherever there is a clinic open," Edl told officers when they warned of the possibility of arrest, according to the indictment.
Northland Family Planning Clinic, the Department of Justice, and the Assistant United States Attorney involved in the case did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.