Justin Phillips says he and several other pro-life advocates sat in front of the doors of an abortion mill in Sterling Heights, Michigan on August 27, 2020, delaying a pregnant woman from entering the facility for about an hour.
For that hour of sitting, Phillips faces the prospect of over a decade in federal prison, as his attorney and others familiar with the case have confirmed. But for Phillips and others across the country charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, hope was sparked this week that President-Elect Donald Trump could quell the zeal of the Department of Justice (DOJ) which has in recent years been actively targeting pro-lifers engaging peacefully with women outside of abortion mills.
The FACE Act was enacted under President Bill Clinton in 1994. The law prohibits interfering with anyone seeking, obtaining, or providing so-called “reproductive health services.”
Phillips and others have been awaiting sentencing in their case, but in a status conference this week, U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Leitman in Michigan’s Eastern District told attorneys to stand down.
In an order released Wednesday, Leitman paused all briefings on post-trial motions until further notice and pushed the next status conference to March 24, 2025, at the latest — well after Trump’s inauguration.
David Peters, the Pacific Justice Institute attorney representing Phillips, told The Federalist that the judge instructed DOJ prosecutors to consult with the new Civil Rights Division and the new political leaders under the Trump administration before proceeding.
Peters believes the defendants’ FACE cases could be dismissed under the Trump administration. That would be better than a pardon for those not yet sentenced. A case dismissed before sentencing will not show up on the pro-lifers’ records, he said.
“I think the judges know it’s a political thing,” Phillips told The Federalist in an interview. “The judicial system is supposed to seek for justice. It is really a crazy experience, seeing how wicked the justice system is.”
He described the incident for which he now faces potential jail time.
“We were worshiping the Lord and just trying to stop babies from being killed there, by just sitting in front of the door,” Phillips said. “When they told me, it was time to go or I get arrested, I stayed there. And then once they said, OK, you’re arrested, I stood up and they arrested me.”
Phillips, of Michigan, says he has seen hundreds of pregnant mothers change their minds and save their babies since he got involved in the abortion rescue community.
“When Jesus saved me, he gave me a lot of love for him and for our neighbors and opened my eyes to so many of our neighbors that are killed and just forgotten,” Phillips said. “We know where it happens. I started going out to the abortion clinics back in 2017, and I’m there to offer help to moms and point to the Lord. I’ve Seen God save hundreds and hundreds of babies and help a lot of people. The rescue was just really an act of worship, to lay my life down as Christ laid his life down for me.”
But two and a half years after the Sterling Heights sit-in, the FBI came with an indictment charging Phillips and seven others there that day with a violation of the FACE Act. By then, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision had already overturned Roe V. Wade, and President Joe Biden had established the Reproductive Rights Task Force in the Department of Justice (DOJ) — which was wielded as part of the DOJ’s efforts to crack down on the FACE Act. The DOJ started retroactively investigating incidents at abortion mills.
The DOJ rarely made FACE arrests prior to Dobbs. As I previously reported for The Epoch Times, data from the DOJ showed that in the 10 years between 2011 and 2021, the Department of Justice criminally charged 17 people with FACE Act violations, but in 2022 alone, the DOJ charged 26 people — and there have been more charges since then.
Now, as multiple attorneys involved in these cases have noted, the DOJ has begun adding an additional charge to many of the alleged FACE violations — charges of Conspiracy Against Rights. Combined, the FACE and conspiracy charges threaten a maximum of 11 years in federal prison.
Also indicted alongside Phillips in February 2023 were Calvin Zastrow, Eva Zastrow, Heather Idoni, and Joel Curry — all from Michigan — as well as Chester Gallagher of Tennessee and Eva Edl of South Carolina.
Caroline Davis of Georgia was also named in the indictment, but since then, has worked with the DOJ, testifying against the others in court, to reduce her charges.
Idoni, Calvin Zastrow, and other peaceful pro-lifers are already in prison, having been swept up in other FACE cases. President Donald Trump signaled on the campaign trail that his administration would “rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who’s unjustly victimized by the Biden regime,” including such FACE prisoners, to “get … them back to their families where they belong.”
