Trump pardoned nearly two dozen pro-life activists who were prosecuted under the FACE Act by the previous administration.
Joan Bell had just finished her second group Rosary of the day when a fellow inmate ran into the Philadelphia prison cell and delivered unexpected news.
“‘Miss Joan’s husband’s on TV! She’s been pardoned,’” Bell, 76, recounted to The Epoch Times.
Bell, who has been dubbed the matriarch of pro-life activism, has been to jail multiple times for “rescues”—the pro-life term for entering an abortion clinic and potentially blocking entrances in hopes of stopping procedures from occuring. This time, the president of the United States granted her a pardon.
“I didn’t think it was going to happen,” Bell said, referring to the pardon. She added that she was grateful to Trump for his “great, great kindness.”
While in prison, Bell and a group of other inmates would perform Mass prayers from a missalette daily in both English and Spanish. Two groups would also pray the Rosary in both languages.
She had already served more than a year in prison for an October 2020 protest at the Washington Surgi-Clinic, located in the nation’s capital.
Bell, who received a sentence of 27 months, was one of 23 pro-life activists prosecuted under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Trump pardoned each of them just three days after he was sworn in as president.
The Justice Department had also leveled charges under a conspiracy against rights statute, which was part of a post-Civil War law targeting groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Combined, the two laws resulted in multiple defendants receiving yearslong sentences. By the time Trump issued the pardons, many had already been incarcerated for more than a year.
“They should not have been prosecuted,” Trump said before signing the pardons in the Oval Office on Jan. 23. “This is a great honor to sign this.”
