“This is going to be a wonderful day. We are going to terrorize this place. And I want the manager to hear me say that. … More people are coming … and we’re going to make sure we terrorize you guys so good.”
These words were shared on a Facebook livestream by antiabortion extremist Bevelyn Beatty Williams as she prepared to invade and harass a Planned Parenthood clinic in lower Manhattan in June of 2020.
On Wednesday, July 24, Williams was sentenced to 41 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act—a 1994 federal law that “prohibits violent, threatening, damaging and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain or provide reproductive health services.” This sentencing comes after a nine-day federal jury trial in February. During the invasion, Williams was accompanied by Edmee Chavannes, fellow antiabortion extremist. However, Chavannes was found not guilty in the same trial.
Williams, based in Tennessee, is infamous, having terrorized reproductive care facilities for years. Describing herself as the “wife of Christ,” Williams has associations with Operation Save America, an antiabortion extremist group, and Proud Boys, a neo-fascist militant group.
According to her indictment and conviction, Williams “threatened and used force” against patients and staff members of Planned Parenthood’s Manhattan Health Center on Jun. 19, 2020. Williams blocked both the patient and staff entrances of the clinic, intimidating staff members and depriving patients of critical healthcare needs.
The next day, Williams and Chavannes returned to the clinic. Williams “pressed her body against the door to the Health Center’s patient entrance and refused to move,” resulting in a staff member’s hand being injured. The staff member had yelled that her hand was being crushed, but Williams refused to stand down, shouting, “We shall not be moved.”
This is not the first time Williams has terrorized a reproductive care facility: Judge Rochon cited seven other criminal convictions as a factor in her sentence.
In January 2022, Williams traveled to Fort Myers, Fla., to harass patients entering the local Planned Parenthood clinic. A doctor from the clinic testified “that care was delayed for several patients scheduled to have time-sensitive procedures—or risk bleeding, infection and severe pain.”
Later that year, in July 2022, Bevelyn Beatty Williams, her husband Ricky Williams, and Chavannes attempted to invade two reproductive health centers in and around Nashville, Tenn.. Bevelyn Beatty livestreamed herself harassing patients and staff members, asserting her intention to “terrorize” the building if she was not permitted to enter. Ricky Williams was detained at the second location for trespassing. As he was being escorted off the property by a police officer, Bevelyn Beatty Williams demanded that her gun—strapped to her husband at the time—be returned to her: “That’s my gun.”
In a separate state court proceeding, Bevelyn Beatty Williams, Ricky Williams and Chavannes were arrested and later found guilty of criminal trespassing.
In the federal case, prior to sentencing, Bevelyn Beatty Williams requested leniency, stating that she had “found religion as a source of inspiration.” However, Judge Rochon said, “You cannot commit crimes, even in the name of a religious cause.”
“We are grateful to the U.S. DOJ for prosecuting these terrifying crimes against abortion clinics, staff and their patients,” duVergne Gaines, director of the Feminist Majority Foundation’s (publisher of Ms.) National Clinic Access Project, told Ms. “Since 2017, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in clinic invasions, blockades and campaigns of terrors. Only through the vigorous enforcement of the FACE Act by this administration and the U.S. DOJ are these extremists being brought to justice and these crimes deterred.”
On July 24, a second FACE Act case was handed down by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Mohamed Waes, based in Ohio, “was sentenced to 66 months in prison, three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $273,982.08 in restitution” for threatening a reproductive healthcare facility and conspiring to commit money laundering. In July 2022, Waes “intentionally interfered with and intimidated employees of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio by threatening over the phone to burn down their building because they were providing reproductive health services.”
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