Grandmother pardoned after pro-life activism: ‘I was doing this in obedience to His word’

On March 30, 2022, Heather Idoni received a call from fellow pro-life activist Lauren Handy, who spoke the foreboding words, “Heather, they’re coming for us.”

“They” were the FBI — and they had already arrested three pro-life men at gunpoint that morning at their homes. Handy wanted Idoni to prepare herself for her own arrest, which could come at any moment. But instead of fear, peace washed over Idoni. Then she and her husband went about their day as usual.

“I went to my bookstore and one of my sons lived upstairs with his wife and children and he came downstairs with the baby,” recalled Idoni. “I was holding my grandson and a couple came in and asked for a particular book … I knew I didn’t have it and I said, ‘No, I’m sorry, I don’t have that book.’ They acted like they were looking around and then they took off their jackets and they said, ‘Actually we’re with the FBI.’ And I just remember the peace was still there. This joy came over me and I laughed and said, ‘Oh, I’ve been expecting you.’ It was very peaceful, but there were 12 officers so the whole town is out there wondering what’s going on and, ya know, police cars up and down the road.”

The next day, the local newspaper ran two strikingly different stories on Idoni. The first was a previously scheduled story on her mission trip to Ukraine where she helped carry supplies for the military. The other was about her arrest and indictment for the pro-life rescue she took part in on October 22, 2020, in Washington, D.C.

Knowing the cost

It had been 18 months since that rescue effort in which Idoni, Handy, and seven other pro-lifers had participated in a pro-life advocacy effort to stop abortions at the late-term Washington Surgi-Clinic in D.C. While at least one of the pro-lifers remained outside of the facility, several, including Idoni, had entered the building which housed the abortion business, where they used chains and bike locks to secure themselves and prevent abortions. At some point during the day, a nurse tripped and was injured while the pro-lifers were there. The facility ended up closing to patients for five hours, and the pro-lifers who were inside were all arrested for trespassing. While there, they were each interviewed by the FBI.

After 10 hours, they were released and never went to court on the charges.

It was a year and a half later, after the Biden-Harris administration had taken office, that Idoni and the other pro-life activists were charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and for conspiracy against rights charges.

“We knew that the first time with FACE you would get six months. We knew the cost,” said Idoni. “I was willing to rescue and save lives for six months in jail. No one ever considered conspiracy charges being added. That was a surprise to everyone. That’s where felony charges came in. At one point I was facing over 50 years. It never scared me because, at the time I was 58, and I remember thinking, ‘It’s a little funny because they weren’t going to be able to get that much time out of me at my age.’ I didn’t really ever worry because I knew God was in control. I knew I was doing this in obedience to His word.”

A vapor of a life

And obedient she has been. Idoni has always been pro-life, but in 1989, she decided to become more active in the movement after she had heard messages on the radio asking pro-lifers to help save babies by sitting in front of abortion businesses. She decided to join the effort.

“Once I did that, I saw God’s deliverance consistently,” she said. “Many times I wasn’t arrested, but I was arrested six times between 1989 and 1990. I became pregnant with my son and was pregnant in jail a few times.”

But after she gave birth to her first son, rescue work was put to the side. She believes that type of activism is for young people without families, single people, and the elderly — those who don’t have a lot of responsibilities at home.

Once she was older, she decided to get back to rescuing. “We just have this little vapor of a life to obey God, so I don’t want to do anything else,” she said. “I think this is a really good time to get going right now.”

Reigniting the rescue movement

In August 2020, Idoni helped block the doors at an abortion facility in Sterling Heights, Michigan. In March 2021, she took part in a rescue in Nashville, and in April 2021, she went to a rescue in Saginaw, Michigan. It was at that rescue that, based on what she considers a vision from God of a red rose lying on its side, she chained herself in front of the facility door. She ran the chain up her leg and under her hoodie so no one could see it.

“When they went to arrest me, I said, ‘I can’t go.’ They said, ‘Why can’t you go? Are you? Oh my gosh, she’s chained to a post!’ It bought us another 45 minutes because they had to get a tool to cut the cable,” she said.

There were about 15 abortion appointments scheduled that day, and only two or three of the women showed up for them.

After she was arrested that day, Idoni spent one day in jail and was indicted twice more before her DC-related trial began — once for the Nashville rescue and once for the Michigan rescues. After being found guilty of violating FACE and ‘conspiracy against rights’ for the DC rescue, Idoni expected to spend the next three to four months at home awaiting her sentencing. But the jurors had been asked to check a box if they believed the pro-lifers had acted violently at Washington Surgi-Clinic — causing the nurse’s injury when she tripped. The jurors, whom Idoni said were ‘very biased Planned Parenthood donors,’ each checked that box.

Because of this, the pro-lifers were taken immediately to prison to await their sentencing. At the same time, Idoni received a text — a new grandson had just been born.

But before her sentencing for the D.C. rescue, Idoni had to go to trial for the Nashville rescue and was found guilty of violating FACE and for conspiracy charges for that activism, as well. From there, she was moved to Northern Neck, Virginia.

A stroke and solitary confinement

“I had a pressure feeling on my chest, which is something I’m supposed to report,” she said. “They took me to a hospital near Richmond where I had a catheterization procedure and when they got to my heart, they found three different blockages and put in three stents. The next morning, I was missing part of the vision in my right eye and still am, but I’ve gotten used to it. The doctor said it was a mini-stroke that when they went in with the stents it must have broken off some of the plaque in an artery.”

Pro-lifers were outraged that Idoni was kept in prison despite the stroke.

In August 2023, in a prison in Alexandria, Virginia, Idoni was put in solitary confinement for five days because she bought items at the commissary to give to women who didn’t have the money to shop there. When she came out of solitary confinement, it was her birthday.

“One of the girls gave her life to Jesus and she wanted to do that on my birthday,” she said. “In jail, it’s like you’re on a deserted island and you’ve got these people who become like your family.” She added, “Birthdays in jail are special. You’ve got these girls, all in the same boat, trying to make it special to each other, writing a poem or a song or making a gift. I think my best birthday ever was in prison.”

But the next day at lunch, administrative staff members saw that Idoni did not have her ID bracelet on. She had forgotten it after not needing it in solitary confinement. For this, she was sent back to solitary confinement — this time, for 21 days.

The promised pardon

In 2024, Idoni was sentenced to eight months for the Nashville rescue and was brought back to Michigan to await her sentencing for the two rescues she had participated in there. As she was waiting, however, Trump was elected as President, and the sentencing was put on hold by the judge who knew that Idoni would likely be pardoned for her ‘crimes’ once Trump took office, as he had promised.

After Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, she eagerly awaited news of that promised pardon.

“I was very excited,” she said. “I got a big adrenaline rush when the J6ers got pardoned and then a couple of days went by and I resigned myself that it might not happen and that was ok. I had peace on finishing my sentence. When you’re sitting in county prison, they don’t always count that toward your federal sentence. My husband and I said, ‘You know what, I might be serving the whole thing. We’re good with this. We trust God. When the pardon did happen, it was quite a shock.”

On Thursday, January 23, one of Idoni’s cellmates was listening to a broadcast on Jail Ministry Radio when she said, “Heather, they’re talking about you and your friends. You just got pardoned!”

“We were all pretty excited,” said Idoni. “Friday morning I went to the rec room to spend some time alone and walk and one of the higher-ups came in and said, ‘Would you like to go home?'”

Idoni’s friends, family, pro-lifers, the warden of the jail, and the sheriff came to see her as she left the jail a free woman after a year and a half. The sheriff had been in his position for 32 years and had never had a federal pardon from that county jail, “so they were all really celebrating it,” she said.

Later that night, she was able to meet two new grandchildren who had been born during her days in jail. In all, Idoni has 15 sons — 10 of whom are adopted from Ukraine. Her youngest son is now 19 and she has 10 grandchildren — so far. She is also the mother of a daughter who was stillborn in 2008.

The future includes rescue work

Though she believes there will be backlash following the Trump administration’s decision not to prosecute FACE Act convictions except under extreme circumstances, she believes rescue work must continue.

“States will try to enact their own style of FACE Act, so the difference will be state prison v. federal prison,” she said. “There’s always backlash. It’s time to be vigilant and don’t think we have some sort of victory. I’m glad to be out of jail but that just means I have time to rescue again.”

Though she is currently planning to go to Ukraine with her husband and fellow pro-lifers Cal Zastrow and Eva Zastrow, when she returns, she intends to get back to rescuing babies — and her family supports her.

“They can see God’s hand in it,” she said. “They all know I have no intention of stopping.”