Pro-Life Grandma Joan Bell Released From Prison After Trump’s Pardon

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Posted on 01/24/2025 2:57:32 PM PST by Morgana

Pro-life activist Joan Andrews Bell, a 76-year-old pro-life grandma, was incarcerated for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act while protesting late-term abortions.

Bell was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison after she was arrested in August 2023 after peacefully praying inside of an abortion clinic.

Today, Bell is free.

“Joan Bell has been pardoned and released from federal custody,” the Thomas More Society, a pro-life legal group, posted on X today.

Yesterday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order pardoning the 23 pro-life Americans Joe Biden imprisoned for protesting abortion.

“This is a great honor to sign this,” Trump said, condemning Biden’s lawfare, especially targeted at “elderly people.”

Bell is one of those people Trump referenced.

Bell, a gentle giant known by many as a sweet grandmas who fights for little babies, was 24 years old and shocked when the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision paved the way for legalized abortion in the U.S.

Bell was sentenced to 27 months in prison under the FACE Act just for engaging in a peaceful protest inside an abortion center.

Those pro-lifers on trial conducted a rescue at the Washington Surgi-Clinic operated by the notorious late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo who was busted by a LiveAction undercover investigator for admitting that he would not help a child with life-saving efforts if he or she survived a late-term abortion. He emphatically stated that a nearby hospital’s efforts to save the life of a child he was trying to abort was “the stupidest thing they could have done.”

The rescuers were given 115 aborted babies by the driver of a medical waste van outside Santangelo’s late-term abortion facility. The babies were well-developed – second and possibly third trimester. Their remains are still in a vault at the D.C. medical examiner’s office.

In October 2020, about two months after the remains were obtained, the nine pro-lifers blocked the entrance of the abortion facility and protesting abortion.

However, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton nominee, would not allow the video to be used as evidence. She also prohibited the defendants from arguing their actions were protected by the First Amendment or were committed in defense of a third person, unborn children.

In a September 5 article for Crisis Magazine, Christopher Bell quoted the ancient phrase “absence makes the heart grow fonder,” and wrote that the adage “has never been truer for me.” Christopher was unable to see his wife in person for nine months. He was only able to talk to her on the phone for up to 20 minutes at a time. Now, he is able to visit her on occasion, surrounded by guards.

He wrote, “How easy it is to laugh with Joan, even in her bright yellow prison suit.”

According to Christopher, he and his wife knew that resisting abortion would involve sacrifice, even before their marriage, noting that Christ asks Christians to take up their crosses.

Christopher recounted that his wife told him in August, “What little sacrifice this is… They aren’t torturing us. We get to eat. We get medicines. In Germany, the [Nazis] would shoot you and your whole family if you were hiding a Jewish person.”

Christopher also explained that he first met Joan when she was in prison for pro-life work.

“I must have recalled the awe in seeing her with a smile, surrounded as we were in a room no bigger than a large living room with other prisoners and visitors and guards,” he wrote. “Her happy face wasn’t just for meeting a new friend; her spirit reflected her deeper desire to do what God wants.”

He wrote that Joan’s love for everyone, even those who are guilty, “shows me how much love God gives to those willing to give a little more.”

Joan’s imprisonment has garnered national attention, including from LiveAction President Lila Rose. In a speech at the National Eucharistic Congress, Rose praised Joan for her activism.

“Joan Bell’s peaceful resistance echoes the spirit of the martyrs,” Rose said. “I believe that this sister of ours is living a white martyrdom.”

Bell has seven children, six of whom are adopted and have special needs.

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1 posted on 01/24/2025 2:57:32 PM PST by Morgana

To: Morgana

To: RightWingNutJob69

4 posted on 01/24/2025 3:01:16 PM PST by AndyJackson

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