Pardoned pro-lifers vow to keep up abortion fight

Calvin Zastrow, 64, was in his cement-walled prison cell in the Thomson, Ill., federal correctional institution Thursday night when a guard banged on his door and told him he was being released. His sentence wasn’t supposed to end until March 29. But in less than two hours, Zastrow was walking out of the prison singing a hymn, finally wearing jeans again. He lost weight during his three months in prison for blocking the entrance to a Nashville-area abortion facility. The size of jeans he asked for no longer fit, so he had to hold up the pants with one hand.

Meanwhile, Zastrow’s daughter Eva, 26, was at their home in Michigan, where she was on probation for her own involvement in the same 2021 abortion center sit-in. Since Inauguration Day, she had heard rumors that President Donald Trump would pardon her father and her along with 21 other pro-life activists. But she didn’t believe it until Thursday afternoon when she opened a group text from fellow pro-lifers. “Boom, there’s a video of Trump signing it with a squeaky marker,” she said.

The document Trump signed pardoned the father and daughter along with 21 other pro-life activists who received similar convictions under the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and civil rights conspiracy laws for blocking abortion facility entrances. Some, like Eva, were under house arrest or on probation. Some were awaiting the start of their prison sentences. Others had already begun their sentences as early as August 2023.

Former President Bill Clinton signed the FACE Act in 1994 to deter demonstrators from using physical means to interfere with abortion center operations. First-time offenders could face up to a year in prison. For decades, prosecutors rarely used the law to put pro-lifers behind bars. But under the Biden administration, the Department of Justice paired FACE indictments with charges of “conspiracy against rights”—the right to access so-called “reproductive health services”—which brought a possible 10-year prison sentence. In the incidents that resulted in the majority of the convictions, pro-lifers sat in front of the doors of abortion facilities, often praying, singing, and talking to women who had come for appointments.

The Zastrows and other pro-lifers are celebrating the end of their sentences. But they struggled with the choice to pursue pardons in the first place, and at least one decided not to request one. They were concerned that a presidential pardon would prevent them from challenging their convictions in court and pursuing rulings that could set a precedent so others do not receive similar punishments for their pro-life activism. With or without the pardons, the activists believe their work to protect unborn babies and fight for the repeal of the FACE Act must continue.

Calvin Zastrow and his wife celebrate his pardon outside the prison where he was incarcerated. Photo courtesy of Eva Zastrow

Within a few hours of hearing about the pardons, Eva and her mother, sister, and brother-in-law were in the car on the roughly 400-mile drive to pick up Zastrow. “We had no idea if he’d actually be out same day or not, but we just started driving,” Eva said.

Zastrow, meanwhile, was asking prison officials if he could contact his attorney. He said the prison had been on lockdown since Saturday due to a gang fight, so he didn’t know the details of the pardon. “We want to continue to challenge this in the courts, and if you don’t have a case, you have no standing to challenge it,” Zastrow told WORLD.

The Thomas More Society, a pro-life law firm, sent Trump’s incoming administration a formal letter on Jan. 15, requesting the pardons of 21 pro-lifers, including the Zastrows. Attorney Steve Crampton said making the request involved lengthy discussions with some of the activists and their lawyers. “They are passionate, not only about saving babies but also about seeing the FACE Act repealed and dealt with,” he said, adding that many, including Zastrow, were willing to serve out their sentences if accepting a pardon meant they had no chance to challenge the law in court.

“It wasn’t easy, I think, for many of them,” Crampton said.

So far, attempts to appeal previous FACE Act rulings have had no success. Even though Crampton believes he and his fellow attorneys have strong arguments that courts haven’t fully considered, he acknowledges they might never win a case. “There’s a serious risk involved in not accepting a pardon when it’s right there in front of you,” he said.

Herb Geraghty, serving a 27-month prison sentence in the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center for sitting in the lobby of a Washington, D.C., abortion facility, chose not to request a pardon from the president. “I don’t want to give the government any chance to say that I don’t have a good enough reason to bring this on appeal,” Geraghty told WORLD.

But Trump pardoned the Pittsburgh native anyway, 10 months before the end of the sentence. On Thursday night, after receiving the news of the pardons, Geraghty asked to stay detained. But, around midnight, officers said they could not legally do so. Geraghty would have refused to sign paperwork, but there was none to sign.

“I feel like I got kicked out of prison,” Geraghty told WORLD. “They looked at me like I was crazy while I said, ‘No, no, no, I don’t know if I’m leaving. I need to think about whether to accept it.’ But, here I am.” Geraghty is a liberal atheist and a founding member of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising. PAAU opposes abortion because it is violent and denies social equality to unborn babies.

On Friday afternoon, the Associated Press reported that the Justice Department had ordered its prosecutors to stop bringing cases against abortion facility protesters under the FACE Act except in “extraordinary circumstances.” The department also reportedly planned to drop three in-progress cases against pro-lifers. In a memo quoted by the AP, Justice Department Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle described the FACE Act prosecutions as an example of the weaponization of law enforcement.

That’s good news for today’s pro-lifers, but it doesn’t address long-term worries about the FACE Act.

“Even if the Trump administration … cages the vicious beast that is the FACE Act, there’s no guarantee that another Democrat or even another Republican that gets into office in four years may not unleash the beast again,” Crampton said. “So we want to see the thing put away.”

That could happen through efforts outside the courts. Republicans in the House and Senate have introduced bills that would repeal the law. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., this week condemned the Biden administration’s prosecution of these pro-lifers. “The FACE Act should be used to defend churches and pregnancy care centers as well, which it has not been,” Hawley told WORLD. “But the best thing to do would be to get rid of it, to be honest. I think it’s very telling that the Biden administration allowed churches and pregnancy care centers to be literally firebombed and did nothing.”

While not a supporter of Trump, Geraghty expressed gratitude. “I’m not going to turn up my nose and say I’m too liberal to even acknowledge he did the right thing,” Geraghty said. “But I don’t want people to think this is the pro-life win of the administration. It’s just the beginning. We need to repeal FACE, and we need legislation with Trump’s signature.”

The Zastrows gave glory to God for their pardons. Eva said she is looking forward to getting her passport back so she can continue her mission work overseas. Zastrow, meanwhile, is hoping to return to mission work in Ukraine and is looking forward to meeting his new grandson, who was born in Michigan during Zastrow’s three months in prison.

Upon his release, officials put Zastrow up in a motel. He said he didn’t sleep a wink until his family arrived at about 4 a.m. “This is my first time to see him in over three months,” Eva said, sitting next to her father in a Zoom call with WORLD five hours later. “So it’s a big deal. I couldn’t stop smiling till it hurt.”