Four antiabortion extremists, Dennis Green, Paul Vaughn, Coleman Boyd and Cal Zastrow, were recently sentenced following their convictions for felony conspiracy and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. These charges stemmed from their involvement in a 2021 blockade of the carafem Health Center in Nashville, a reproductive health clinic that offered abortion care. (carafem has since paused provision of in-person care in Tennessee, as the state has outlawed abortion.)
The FACE Act, enacted in 1994, “prohibits violent, threatening, damaging and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain or provide reproductive health services.”
On March 5, 2021, the four defendants and the seven other indicted individuals blockaded the entrance to the Carafem Nashville Health Center. Patients were unable to enter the clinic, and staff members were unable to leave. In Coleman Boyd’s live stream of the blockade, he can be heard harassing and intimidating a patient, calling her a “mom coming to kill her baby.” Boyd also encouraged one of his children—a minor—to do the same.
A patient and employee of the clinic testified at the trial, saying they felt fear and anxiety during the clinic blockade. Court documents described the blockade as “borne out of the defendant’s lack of respect for the law,” meant to “train and encourage others to carry out additional unlawful blockades.”
For their violations of the FACE Act and felony conspiracy, Green, Vaughn, Boyd and Zastrow faced up to 11 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000; however, the defense successfully argued for much lighter sentences than the prosecutors recommended.
- U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger sentenced Zastrow, one of the blockade’s primary leaders, to six months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Zastrow is the only defendant thus far to receive jail time.
- The remaining sentences were much lighter. Green and Vaughn each received three years of supervised release.
- Boyd received five years of probation, six months on house arrest and a $10,000 fine. Judge Trauger determined that he was the only defendant financially capable of paying.
- The remaining defendants, Eva Edl, Eva Zastrow, James Zastro, Paul Place, Heather Idoni and Chester “Chet” Gallagher, are all awaiting sentencing.
- The 11th defendant, Caroline Davis, turned state’s evidence.
- U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger postponed the sentencing of Idoni and Gallagher to September. The pair is preparing for a separate but similar trial in Michigan, which is scheduled for August. Idoni is also currently serving a two-year sentence for a 2020 clinic blockade in Washington, D.C..
All of the defendants are associated with the antiabortion extremist group Operation Save America (OSA). Before the sentencing, current OSA national director Jason Storms, former OSA national director Rusty Thomas and current OSA assistant director Derin Stidd organized several demonstrations outside the federal courthouse where the defendants stood trial this past January and were sentenced two weeks ago. They called upon extremists from across the country to join them in condemning the federal judiciary and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for pursuing the charges aimed at protecting patients, providers and critical access to reproductive healthcare.
OSA associate Jesse Boyd (no relation to Coleman Boyd) sent a threatening letter to Judge Trauger on May 2, two months before the sentencing, and posted a copy on Instagram. The letter read: “It is my duty to WARN you ahead of this sentencing,” and proceeded to discuss a potential overthrow of the U.S. judicial system in the case of an “unjust ruling” while including violent and gruesome biblical references. Jessie Boyd wrote, “There is indeed a time for the PEOPLE, as the final authority in American government, to step in and fulfill what its elected representatives and its courts refuse to do in terms of their God-ordained role to punish that which is evil and to protect that which is good…”
He also directly threatened the judge, writing, “The answer will lie in whether or not you sentence a just and godly man to prison. If you do, you invite the wrath of God upon your courtroom, your family, and your own head.”
Eight days later, Jesse Boyd posted an ominous message on the OSA’s Facebook event discussion forum, saying, “Christian people should descend upon that courthouse, and turn the place upside down. (Acts 17:6) and cause the persecutors of righteousness to tremble…”
Abortion clinics have seen a major uptick in acts of violence and intimidation since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, with notable spikes in death threats and arson reported by the National Abortion Federation. As the violence continues, antiabortion extremists are pushing for the repeal of the FACE Act, claiming that it has been weaponized by the Biden administration’s DOJ.
Editor’s note: At-home abortions via medication abortion are legal, safe and available in all 50 states. The organization Plan C has a comprehensive guide to finding abortion pills on their website, which is continually updated and has all the latest information on where to find abortion pills from anywhere in the U.S.
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