New trial scheduled for pro-lifer accused of violating California FACE Act

Pro-life activist Anastasia Rogers will be facing a new trial in a case involving a social media post which prosecutors say threatened a pro-abortion escort outside a Planned Parenthood business. Rogers and her legal team contend the post was taken out of context.

Key Takeaways:

• Pro-lifer Anastasia Rogers is facing charges after authorities say her social media post violated California's FACE Act.

• Rogers' first trial ended in a mistrial after jurors could not come to a unanimous decision.

• The San Francisco District Attorney is seeking a retrial, which is scheduled for the end of June.

The Backstory:

Rogers, who is involved with the pro-life organization Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, was arrested due to an outstanding warrant while sidewalk counseling outside a Planned Parenthood in San Francisco, California, on December 18.

Though there was some confusion as to the reason for the warrant, Rogers was ultimately charged with violating California's Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which, according to KQED, "prohibits videotaping and distributing videos of reproductive health patients, employees or volunteers for the purpose of intimidating them from becoming or remaining in that role."

The charges stem from a social media reel posted by Roberts, in which she shows herself trying to help women while standing opposite of an abortion facility escort outside the abortion business. At one point in the reel, the words "unalive them" appear over the video of the escort. Prosecutors say Rogers was threatening the escort, but Rogers and her attorneys at Life Legal Defense Foundation say the video was taken out of context, and "unalive them" is referring to the babies killed inside the abortion facility.

“ What she was trying to communicate was what the escorts do is ‘unalive’ their children, and given complications that can result from abortions gone wrong, actually injure or sometimes even kill the women who are going in,” Rogers' counsel Michael Millen told KQED.

The Details:

Last week, a San Francisco judge declared a mistrial in the case because a jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision after the two-week trial. Nine of the 12 jurors found Rogers not guilty of distributing a social media video with the intent to intimidate, while 10 of the 12 jurors found her not guilty of videotaping an abortion facility escort with the intent to intimidate.

“This prosecution never should have been brought,” said Alexandra Snyder, Chief Executive Officer of Life Legal Defense Foundation. “Anastasia has endured the stress, expense, and uncertainty of criminal prosecution because of a brief social media post expressing her pro-life beliefs. After nearly two weeks of trial, not only did the State fail to convince the jury that she committed a crime, but ten San Francisco jurors voted to find her not guilty.”

However, rather than dropping the case, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office is seeking a new trial — a move Rogers' attorneys believe is due to "political overtones."

“If this was a robbery case, a carjacking case, and nine or 10 jurors said ‘not guilty,’ I assure you they would never retry the case,” Millen said.

Life Legal Director of Criminal Litigation, Allison Aranda, one of Anastasia’s attorneys and a former prosecutor, agreed. “In my years as a criminal trial attorney, I have never seen or heard of the prosecution re-trying a case after ten jurors voted to acquit the defendant,” she said.

What's Next:

According to KQED, Millen has filed a motion to dismiss, which will be heard during pre-trial conference on June 29. The new trial is scheduled to begin June 30.