4 pro-life activists found guilty, spared jail time for NJ abortion clinic 'rescue' event

(OSV News) -- Four pro-life activists, including two pardoned by President Donald Trump in January for earlier convictions under the FACE Act, were found guilty of trespassing March 14 for their 2019 "rescue" at a New Jersey abortion clinic. However, they will not face jail time.

Instead, all received 18 months of probation in Madison Joint Municipal Court in Madison, New Jersey, although they won't have to report to a probation officer. Their 30-day sentences for trespassing were suspended.

The trial had been delayed twice, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Father David Nix, a Denver-based diocesan hermit; Father Fidelis Moscinski, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal from the Bronx borough of New York; William Goodman, a Wisconsin native and longtime activist who has experienced homelessness since 2017; and another activist, Sally Hernandez, were convicted March 14. They had entered Garden State Gynecology in Morristown.

Vincent James Sanzone, the lawyer representing all four defendants, issued a statement: "The Holy Spirit was with us, the 30 day suspended jail time was the best thing we can do. The judge gave us some leeway in presenting our arguments for life. It was an honor and privilege defending these pro-life saints."

On Jan. 23, Father Fidelis and Goodman were among 23 pardoned by Trump following convictions for violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE, Act. Father Fidelis had been convicted of participating in a clinic blockade in Hempstead, New York, in 2022, and Goodman for a blockade in Washington in 2020.

The Morristown event was similar to the activities of Operation Rescue decades ago, but was not a "lock and block" blockade, in which doors and parking lot gates were closed with chains and bicycle locks. Rather, the four of them entered the clinic waiting room and began praying while handing out red roses to women and clinic staff.

Each rose had a card stating, "You were made to love and to be loved. Your goodness is greater than the difficulties of your situation," and included phone numbers of pregnancy resource centers.

Morristown police arrested them without incident.

Red Rose Rescues are sponsored by the Michigan-based Citizens for a Pro-Life Society.

In a statement to OSV News, Monica Miller, who heads the organization, said, "These four pro-lifers performed an act of love and charity for innocent, helpless unborn children about to be brutally put to death -- and they also reached out to their mothers -- offering to them words of encouragement and practical help. Unfortunately, we expect that the unborn will remain unseen, their lives not considered in the court of law -- as if they didn't even exist!"

Father Fidelis has been jailed several times, as has Goodman. Hernandez likewise has participated several times in Red Rose Rescues.

It was the third Red Rose Rescue event in New Jersey. Others have taken place in Trenton and Montclair. There have been 30 Red Rose Rescues since September 2017.

Sanzone had argued a "justifiable necessity" defense, saying that the four had "acted upon a reasonable and good faith belief that the abortion facility was killing human life and that staying in the clinic waiting room to dissuade mothers from killing their unborn babies was the only available means of preventing the killing of those lives."

Father Nix, a native of Denver, is a Boston College graduate and a former paramedic who was ordained for the Archdiocese of Denver in 2010.

A diocesan hermit lives a solitary life directly under the authority of the local bishop following a personalized life plan approved by his bishop. For Father Nix, that is Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila.

On March 10, a federal judge in New York rejected a contempt motion filed by state Attorney General Letitia James against Red Rose Rescue protesters.

Last August, James had filed the motion against Bernadette Patel for violating a 15-foot buffer zone at Planned Parenthood clinics in Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York, where she said Patel and others had "accosted patients."

In a March 12 statement, Christopher Ferrara, senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, which had defended the activists, said that the evidence "clearly demonstrated that that there was no violation of the injunction, including the bodycam footage showing that every claim of misconduct made by ... two partisan witnesses was demonstrably false."

Two major events in support of ending government funding to Planned Parenthood are ahead.

On March 28 and 29, Students for Life Action and Students for Life of America will be hosting about 100 "life chain" rallies nationwide. On April 2, Red Rose Rescue, in collaboration with the Pro-Life Action League, also plans to sponsor a nationwide protest.