Manhattan pro-life activists charged with violating the FACE Act

Two women, both longtime pro-life activists, have been charged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) with violating the Freedom Of Access To Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act at a Planned Parenthood facility in Manhattan, New York.

According to a DOJ press release, Bevelyn Beatty Williams and Edmee Chavannes were both charged and indicted with violating the FACE Act, as well as “conspiring to do the same in connection with a multi-year campaign to interfere with individuals seeking to obtain and provide lawful reproductive health services in New York and in several other states.”

For years, both Williams and Chavannes have attempted to reach out to abortion-minded women, largely at the Manhattan Planned Parenthood facility. In 2021, police were dispatched as Williams and Chavannes were allegedly not practicing “social distancing.”

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“[Planned Parenthood is] not following social distancing, mind you — the person I’m standing with I actually live with so we don’t need to follow social distancing. But the police were saying we were violating social distancing and the only ones that are supposed to be there are the ones that work there,” Williams told Live Action News at the time. “And we told them we’re not moving because it’s a public sidewalk and we have a right to be there. They could be there because they work for Planned Parenthood, but we work for Jesus so as long as this is a public sidewalk, we can be here.”

In 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the two women, leading to a requirement for them to stay outside of the abortion facility’s buffer zone, or face a $5,000 fine.

This long-time pro-life advocacy is what the DOJ is alleging amounts to “conspiring” to carry out a “multi-year campaign” of intimidation and harassment.

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, accused the women of using threats and force to keep women from entering the facility, and said they injured a Planned Parenthood staffer on one occasion.

Both of the women are facing a potential five year prison sentence due to the alleged FACE Act violation; Williams faces an additional 10 years due to violating the law “through force, threats of force, and physical obstruction, resulting in bodily harm.” Chavannes faces an extra year, due to alleged “threats of force and physical obstruction.” More details of the charges can be read here.

While Williams and Chavannes have been clear about their role as self-proclaimed pro-life abolitionists, they have previously denied claims that they are protesting or picketing abortion facilities; instead, Williams said their goal is to help both mother and baby.

“We’ve been at that clinic for a while standing for children’s lives and bringing the gospel to these women,” she said in her previous interview, “because they need help just as well as the babies.”