An elderly survivor of a Soviet-era concentration camp was among the seven convicted this month for blocking access to an abortion clinic in a northern suburb of Detroit.
In a press release published Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that 89-year-old Eva Edl and six other defendants were found guilty for their involvement on Aug. 27 in a “blockade of a reproductive health care clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan.”
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Edl was forced into a concentration camp as a child in the 1940s by Yugoslavian dictator Josip Broz Tito, a communist, before ultimately fleeing to the United States.
The defendants were convicted of a felony conspiracy against rights — a statute originally intended to be used against the vigilantism of the Ku Klux Klan — and a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. A sentencing hearing is forthcoming.
In addition to Edl, the jury convicted Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Cal Zastrow as well as his daughter, Eva Zastrow. The conspiracy charge alone could result in a 10-and-a-half-year prison sentence for each defendant.
The charges against the seven defendants were born out of a peaceful protest, where the group stood outside the Northland Family Planning Clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan, alongside other pro-lifers. Edl and Idoni were additionally convicted for their participation in a pro-life protest at the Women’s Health Clinic in Saginaw, Michigan.
Edl credited her faith in God for giving her the strength to endure the trial and noted that suffering for Jesus’ sake is spiritually refining her.
“We need suffering in our lives in order to be purified and not feel sorry about ourselves,” she said, according to The Daily Wire, adding Christians should say, proverbially, “Hammer away, Lord, at that anvil.”
In early August, Edl attended a prayer gathering, where she told The Daily Wire she is confident in her trust in God as the trial unfolds.
“It doesn’t matter how it turns out, God wins in the end,” she told the outlet, noting — in reference to all the legal fees that are stacking up — she knows “God supplies” for all her needs.
Her prayer, she added, is that God will be “glorified” through the whole ordeal.
In a previous interview with The Daily Signal, Edl said she is preparing for the possibility she may die while she is behind bars.
“When I was indicted, I began to prepare to die there,” she said. “Right now, I am ambivalent. … I’m doing the best I can to get ready. [I] haven’t talked to a funeral director yet.”
"Under Biden's DOJ, you have elderly women ... who are being sentenced to two years in prison for peacefully praying in an abortion clinic, not making violent threats," Van Natta said. "So, the sentencing is wildly disproportionate."
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— CBN News (@CBNNews) August 21, 2024
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