(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s episode of The Van Maren Show, Jonathon speaks with recently pardoned pro-life prisoner Jonathan Darnel about his role in a traditional rescue at an infamous DC abortion mill and his subsequent arrest, his struggle to find a lawyer to challenge the FACE Act, unfair trial, experiences in prison, and more.
After discussing how Darnel first got involved in the pro-life movement and his activism over the years, Jonathon asked him about the events that protest that led to his 2020 arrest at the Washington Surgi-Clinic, where five late-term aborted babies were discovered.
Darnel explained that he and other activists originally planned on a Red Rose Rescue – in which the activists go inside the abortion clinic to counsel women against aborting their child – but the night before, some activists instead planned on a “traditional rescue” in which activists block the entrance to the abortion clinic. This change of plans put them at risk of being prosecuted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
Turning to the day of the planned rescue, Darnel described how, as he was outside filming, his fellow activists began walking into the clinic. The staff, realizing what was happening, quickly became violent.
“One woman took a broom handle and started jabbing it at these old ladies to get them out. We had one guy there who held the door open as everybody else’s entrance,” he said. “A clinic staffer was pushing against the door to get it shut. I didn’t see from the footage that he was pushing her around or anything like that, but in the process of pushing against him, she tripped and sprained her ankle.”
“And this would come back on us later during the trial to demonstrate that we had somehow been violent, as she hurt herself pushing up against my friend. Meanwhile, they’re knocking my old lady friends around and getting them thrown to the ground.”
Then Darnel explained that the activists were able to enter the clinic and block its entrances for about five hours before the police started arresting them.
Later in the episode, Darnel dove into how, after he was federally charged under the FACE Act, he struggled to find a pro-life defense attorney to represent him and challenge the law.
“I must say it proved much more difficult than I thought to find an anti-abortion attorney who could represent us,” he said. “I had assumed that if you got in trouble, they would come to your aid, that they wanted to help people who got in trouble defending the innocent and were being persecuted for foolish reasons.”
“I thought for sure [that] anybody would jump at the chance to challenge the FACE Act. I mean, barely anybody had challenged it for 30 years. Well, here’s the opportunity,” he added. “We didn’t get away with this rescue, we‘re being persecuted for it, but hey, now let’s fight. Let’s take it to court, let’s take it to the Supreme Court if possible. I couldn’t find a lawyer to do that.”
To hear more from Jonathan Darnel, tune in to this week’s episode of The Van Maren Show.
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