FACE lawsuit filed against former friar for barricading himself inside abortion clinic

(OSV News) -- The latest federal lawsuit against a pro-life activist involves a former Franciscan friar who barricaded himself in a restroom at a Philadelphia abortion clinic, forcing an intervention by a police SWAT team.

Matthew Connolly, 42, of St. Paul, Minnesota, who has been active in blockades organized by Red Rose Rescue, was charged Aug. 26 in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia of obstructing operations at the Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center on Aug. 27, 2021.

It is the third civil suit the Justice Department has filed against pro-life activists in the past year for violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act. Adopted in 1994, the FACE Act prohibits obstruction and intimidation at both abortion clinics and pregnancy resource centers that counsel against abortion.

Federal prosecutors are also seeking steep fines and penalties against two organizations and seven individuals involved in blockades at two abortion clinics in Ohio -- at Northeast Ohio Women's Center in Cuyahoga Falls on June 4, 2021, and at Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio's Bedford Heights Surgery Center the following day.

Defendants in that case include the Michigan-based Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and its affiliated group, Red Rose Rescue, as well as Monica Miller of South Lyon, Michigan, who heads CPLS; Franciscan Father Fidelis Moscinski, of the Bronx, New York; Jay Smith of Freeport, New York; Lauren Handy of Alexandria, Virginia; Laura Gies of Spring City, Pennsylvania; Clara McDonald of Brooklyn, New York; and Audrey Whipple of Canton, Michigan.

Prosecutors in Ohio seek civil penalties against most defendants of $20,516 and a higher penalty for defendants such as Handy who have previously been convicted of violating the FACE Act. The law also allows prosecutors to seek $5,000 in damages for each person whose clinic appointments were disrupted or delayed.

Handy is currently serving a 57-month sentence, the longest imposed on an abortion-clinic blockader, for her conviction last year involving a 2020 blockade in Washington.
In June, the Justice Department filed a similar suit against Calvin and Eva Zastrow, Chester Gallagher, Kenneth Scott and Katelyn Sims for a blockade in Fort Myers, Florida, on Jan. 27, 2022.

Connolly joined the Franciscan Brothers of Peace in St. Paul as a novice in 2009, but did not take final vows, according to Citizens for a Pro-Life Society.

The lawsuit seeks a civil penalty of not more than $18,444 for a first nonviolent violation, not more than $27,750 for a subsequent nonviolent violation and a $5,000 fine "for each person aggrieved by Connolly's actions." Since, prosecutors noted, "at least 44 appointments had to be rescheduled," total penalties and fines could exceed $250,000.

The lawsuit alleges that Connolly has "regularly engaged in unlawful and obstructive behavior" while participating in Red Rose Rescue blockades, and noted that he has been arrested at least eight times.

According to the criminal complaint, Connolly, on the morning of Aug. 27, 2021, barricaded himself in a patient restroom inside the clinic's secure area. After he told a security guard he was not coming out and after the guard unlocked the door from the outside, Connolly created an obstruction and the guard called police.

Police ordered everyone out of the clinic, a SWAT team broke through the door to forcibly remove Connolly, and he was taken on a stretcher to a nearby hospital for a psychological examination. The clinic shut down for the rest of the day.

No court date has been set for the case. Prosecutors are asking for a jury trial.
Three criminal trials during the past two years of pro-life activists -- both Catholics and evangelicals -- accused of blockading abortion clinics in Washington, Tennessee and Michigan, resulted in convictions for all defendants.

Miller, in a statement to OSV News, called Connolly's lawsuit "another instance of a weaponized Department of Justice obsessed with persecuting non-violent pro-lifers who seek to simply defend unborn children scheduled for the violent act of abortion and offer help and compassion to their mothers."

She added, "Red Rose Rescues do not violate the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Those who participate do not physically obstruct or interfere with anyone's freedom of movement."

The Catholic Church opposes abortion because it holds that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death. However, the church also makes clear that all advocacy for justice must use only moral means, with St. John Paul II teaching in his 1993 encyclical, "Veritatis Splendor," that a person cannot "intend directly something which of its very nature contradicts the moral order ... even though the intention is to protect or promote the welfare of an individual, of a family or of society in general.