By Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, The Daily Signal | December 23, 2024
Ten pro-lifers are spending Christmas in prison this year after being convicted for praying outside abortion clinics and trying to persuade abortion-minded women to save their babies.
While the advocates for unborn life look forward to freedom, many seek to use their incarceration to share the hope they hold and the true meaning of Christmas with fellow prisoners.
Since 2021, the Biden-Harris administration’s Justice Department has brought criminal or civil cases under the Freedom of Clinic Access, or FACE Act, against at least 50 pro-life advocates.
President Joe Biden’s critics have accused him and his DOJ of weaponizing the FACE Act against pro-lifers while failing to charge pro-abortion criminals for the hundreds of attacks on pregnancy resource centers since the May 2022 leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion indicating Roe would soon be overturned.
The Daily Signal was able to communicate with several incarcerated pro-lifer by sending questions through the prison messaging system.
Jonathan Darnell
Jonathan Darnell, 41, was sentenced to 34 months in prison in Thompson, Illinois, after being charged with charged with a felony conspiracy against rights and a FACE Act offense.
This is his second Christmas in jail.
He told The Daily Signal this Christmas will be difficult because his mother was recently placed in a nursing home for her dementia. Yet his hope in his Savior remains strong.
“I was an adult before I began to appreciate that Christmas was not just a prelude to Easter (i.e. the incarnation was not merely a prelude to the cross),” he said. “It means that God is fulfilling His promise of setting things right on earth, crushing the serpent’s head, and bringing the whole world back under His Lordship.”
“The more I can contemplate that,” he continued, “the less I think of my personal problems and the more the future seems bright and full of hope.”
Prior to going to jail, he would spend Christmas with family and friends, and attend a potluck at his church in Virginia. In the days before and after Christmas, he and his fellow church members would do evangelism outings in Washington, D.C.
This year, he hopes to meet his fellow incarcerated pro-lifer, Calvin Zastrow, to sing Christmas carols.
“What we lack in outward expressions of faith,” he said, “we’ll make up for with inward contemplation.”
He will preach about the prophecies made by Mary, Zechariah, and Simeon during the Nativity at the prison’s Spanish Bible study on Sunday.
Darnell celebrates that he has had several new opportunities to discuss his faith in Jesus Christ with other prisoners: “Sometimes I bring the subject up and other times Jesus just drops them into my lap! It’s wonderful!”
John Hinshaw
John Hinshaw, 69, is in a low-security prison in Ayer, Massachusetts, after being convicted for violating the FACE Act in November 2023. He was sentenced to 24 months in jail.
Christmas this year will be difficult, he said, as his youngest daughter, Bernadette, could give birth any day.
Hinshaw is married with six children and four grandchildren.
He was also incarcerated last Christmas, which was his first Christmas away from his family. His oldest daughter, MaryKate, delivered a granddaughter on Dec. 9, 2023, who he has not met yet.
“My children are the greatest things that have ever happened to me. My wife is the softest woman I have ever met,” he told The Daily Signal. “These are the people I have chosen to spend the most time with since my wedding in 1987.”
He said the separation from his family is what “hurts the most” about his incarceration.
“It’s what keeps me awake in the middle of the night here,” he said. “It is the thought I try to chase away every day so I can meet each day.”
While Hinshaw plans to spend a lot of time with his wife and children after he is released next month, he is sad he can never get this time back.
“The ordeal of prison is not overwhelming, except on the days when I know my family is gathering, like Christmas,” he said.
He plans to attend Mass and Bible service on Christmas day. His unit had a small Christmas party and concert.
“We talk about Jesus a lot and when I share my faith with the other inmates, they sometimes don’t understand why I did, and do, the things I’ve done and will do,” he said. “I tell them that after many years and so many prayers asking God to end this slaughter, what if God is answering by asking me what I’m willing to do to stop it?”
Christmas traditions in the Hinshaw family include exchanging gifts, spending time with grandkids, decorating, and watching “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Advent and Christmas are a time of hope, Hinshaw said.
“Obviously, God gives us Hope,” he told The Daily Signal. “But I am not in here to find Hope for myself. I am in here because God wishes to inspire Hope in every person (born and unborn) in this country.”
Hinshaw is thankful to be in a jail with a medical facility on site, as he had a coronary bypass in 2018 and has diabetes. He turns 70 two days after Christmas.
“God’s constant protection throughout my life has continued in prison,” he said. “He continues to introduce people, prayers, and books into my life and consistently offers opportunities for witnessing to the Sanctity of Life. I am filled with gratitude toward him and have offered Him whatever time I have left to serve the mothers and babies so disdained by our culture.”
“Though I am disappointed to be spending another Christmas away from my family,” he continued, “I am doing fine, and I am chomping at the bit to get out and stand up to the abortion bullies again.”
Other inmates are “amazed” that pro-lifers are jailed for trying to save babies, Hinshaw said, and most are supportive.
“I have not had the experience, but some rescuers are able to intervene in other inmates’ abortion temptations to help them choose life,” Hinshaw said. “All of us have counseled inmates (male and female) suffering from post-abortion trauma.”
William Goodman
William Goodman is in prison in Danbury, Connecticut, after being sentenced to 27 months in jail for violating the FACE Act.
“I find it hard to believe this Christmas is about to be my second straight year celebrating the Nativity of Jesus behind bars,” he told The Daily Signal.
“But I keep in mind that what we suffer as prisoners of conscience is NOTHING compared to the horrors experienced by the preborn babies who are dismembered alive without anesthesia or poisoned alive in their mother’s womb,” he said. “I also think of the mothers/fathers who now regret killing their child, and are suffering the wounds that come from this sin.”
Last year in jail, he was able to have a video visit with his family, but this prison doesn’t allow that, and phone access is limited.
“It is difficult to be separated from my family,” he said. “Particularly during this holy and festive time of year. I am especially feeling a little lonely since I was also imprisoned last Christmas for defending life.”
Goodman said this Christmas is another opportunity to spiritually enter into the poverty and abandonment felt by the Holy Family in Bethlehem on the first Christmas.
“They were in a cold cave/stable,” he said. “We are in a cold prison. According to the Biden pro-abortion DOJ, there is ‘no room’ for pro-life rescuers in our nation. We share, in some very small and invisible way, with the abandonment suffered by the discarded preborn children. So sadly, they are the ones who MOST experience that ‘there is no room’ for them in this nation or in the hearts of their parents or in the hearts of most politicians, and even typical citizens.”
“When we keep their terrible suffering in mind,” he continued, “it adjusts our attitude here and helps us to place a focus on our mission.”
He tries to see the low-security prison as a “big monastery” where he can pray and study.
“I try not to focus on the injustice of our situation or the bad things surrounding me,” he continued. “Rather, I try to focus on the preborn who are in danger and be attentive to times when the men here act with virtue and faith.”
Goodman tries to trust God and pray more, especially for the unborn and those working to create a culture of life, he said.
The other prisoners are in “disbelieve that a peaceful sit-in designed to save innocent lives is a ‘federal crime,'” Goodman said.
“I’ve been blessed to find understanding and supportive inmates here who are also prisoners of conscience from their protest at the capital on Jan. 6 of 2021,” he said. “There has also been support from those men who are pro-life.”
Despite the difficult circumstances, Goodman said he has been blessed to pray with other men.
Goodman has been doing full-time pro-life work for about 30 years, so he has been away from family on the holidays on other occasions. Last year, he spent Christmas in a federal holding jail in Alexandria, Virginia.
“We had a Christmas Bible study and prayer time in our cell block, plus there was also a Catholic Mass during the Christmas octave,” he said. “Those who believe in the divinity of Jesus celebrated by sharing snacks, memories of Christmas past, prayers together, even some laughs. This time was also a gift from the Lord.”
He said he tries to see his fellow prisoners as “family” of a different sort.
“In a special way, my fellow Christian brothers are my spiritual family as we celebrate together the Nativity of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior and King!” he wrote to The Daily Signal. “God is omnipresent, so He is everywhere. He is with us right now, and we can worship Him and celebrate with right Him now, even in a U.S. federal prison. God is good!”
Goodman knows he is not alone, but that God is with him, giving him hope. He also takes comfort that Jesus, the apostle Paul, and many other saints were imprisoned for serving Christ.
Lauren Handy
Lauren Handy, 31, was convicted for violating the FACE Act and sentenced to 57 months in prison in Tallahassee, Florida, on May 14.
Handy, who served as director of activism of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, dropped out of college in 2013 to fully focus on pro-life activism.
She was the first person sentenced for violating the FACE Act for attempting to stop abortions of unborn babies from taking place at a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic.
This is Handy’s second Christmas in prison, and it is far from her last, but she is not interested in sympathy.
“Even though this will be my 2nd Christmas behind bars, I take joy in knowing a 9-year-old child is having Christmas with their family this year,” Handy wrote on her Substack. “This is a source of comfort AND a call to action to not feel sorry for me this holiday season.”
Handy said she will spend Christmas making tamales from Doritos, doing video visits with her family, making presents for her friends, and Christmas caroling in the prison’s recreation yard.
Handy recounted her first time going into an abortion clinic in 2014 when she was 21. She and other pro-lifers entered the abortion center with Santa hats, Christmas presents, and caroling books. She was tasked with passing out the gifts and talking to abortion-minded families.
After overcoming her nerves, Handy approached a hopeless-looking pregnant woman.
“Finally finding the courage, I gently approached her and we began to talk,” Handy remembers. “It was messy and vulnerable but we both left that day. She and her baby left safe from abortion and I left with clarity of hope.”
The Daily Signal was unable to get in touch with Handy by time of publication.
Paulette Harlow
Paulette Harlow, 75, spends this Christmas on house arrest after being found guilty last November under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and of a civil rights conspiracy.
“We’re feel very joyful and glad that we’re here for another Christmas,” she told The Daily Signal in a phone interview.
Harlow is not allowed to leave her house except for doctors’ appointments, so she will celebrate Christmas at home with her husband and 38-year-old daughter.
“Usually, I’d be out shopping, and we go caroling, and I volunteer,” she said. “I’m not volunteering for anything, and I’m not helping anybody with anything, so it’s different.”
Harlow was granted house arrest due to her chronic health conditions, including diabetes; Hashimoto’s disease, an inflammatory thyroid condition; and severe back pains. She is currently recovering from a successful back surgery which made her able to walk again.
While Harlow said spending Christmas on house arrest is “isolating,” she said it is “not much of a sacrifice at all,” as it draws attention to the value of the lives of unborn babies.
A devout Catholic who used to attend church every day, Harlow said she misses seeing friends at morning Mass. She requested permission to go to Mass while on house arrest, but the judge specifically mandated in the court record that she cannot attend.
Harlow is thankful that several priests have come to her house to say Mass and administer the sacraments.
“I’m getting the mass an the sacraments that way, but, you know, the mass on TV is nothing like the real mass,” she said, “and just just the idea that they said, ‘I couldn’t go to Mass,’ that’s was just being mean.”
Harlow feels confident that President-elect Donald Trump will pardon her and the other pro-lifers who were convicted under the FACE Act for pro-life advocacy.
“He does what he says he’s gonna do too, so that’s one of the reasons I trust him,” she said. “I like when somebody does what they say they’re gonna do.”
Harlow has been in touch with the incarcerated pro-lifers, who have expressed strong faith and hope in God.
“They say they feel very close to God,” she said, “and they’re pleased that more light is being put on the babies.”
The mother of six and grandmother of eight said God is using everything that happens.
“I’m sure that God’s using everything that you offer up in any sacrifice or any penance you do,” she said. “We just do hope that the plight of the unborn baby is brought more to the forefront.”
Elizabeth (Troutman) Mitchell is the reporting fellow for The Daily Signal and co-host of "The Daily Signal Podcast."
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