New abortion clinic trial in New Jersey involves a hermit, a friar and two laypeople

(OSV News) -- Despite President Donald Trump's January pardons of 23 people convicted of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinics Act, or FACE Act, at least one prosecution of pro-life activists accused of violating a local law by disrupting an abortion clinic is moving ahead.

A diocesan hermit, Father David Nix, is one of four defendants going on trial March 14 in Madison Joint Municipal Court in Madison, New Jersey, for a July 13, 2019, "rescue" at a clinic in nearby Morristown. A conviction could result in fines and a short jail term.

Father David as well as Father Fidelis Moscinski and William Goodman, both of whom received presidential pardons for their earlier participation in clinic blockades, and another activist, Sally Hernandez, were charged after participating in a Red Rose Rescue at Garden State Gynecology. The trial has been postponed twice, once as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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 three 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. Father Fidelis, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal from the Bronx borough of New York, has been jailed several times, as has Goodman, who is originally from Wisconsin and active in Red Rose Rescues since 2017. Goodman told OSV News he's been homeless since that year. Hernandez likewise has been active in Red Rose Rescue for several years.

In a statement to OSV News, Father Fidelis said, "A 'revolution of common sense' has occurred in our nation. I am confident that all of us will be found not guilty."

Father David was previously arrested as part of a Red Rose Rescue at a clinic in Washington, D.C., in 2018, but those charges were dismissed.

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.

In a court filing, Vincent J. Sanzone Jr., the lawyer for all four, said the defendants "have pleaded the defense of justifiable necessity" and "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.

On Jan. 23, Father Fidelis and Goodman were among 23 pardoned by Trump. 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.

Father David, a native of Denver, is a Boston College graduate and a former paramedic, ordained in the Archdiocese of Denver in 2010.

A diocesan hermit (Father David also calls himself a monk-missionary, but is not part of a religious order) lives a solitary life directly under the authority of the local bishop, professing poverty, chastity and obedience, and following a personalized plan of life approved by the bishop. For Father David, that is Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila.

On his website, Father David says he offers "exclusively the seven ancient-rite Roman sacraments, especially the Latin Mass."

The Red Rose Rescue website says its mission includes entering "the actual places where the innocent unborn are about to be dragged to death."

Citizens for a Pro-Life Society had a federal civil suit in Ohio dropped at the same time Trump issued the pardons. But at least one more legal hurdle is ahead.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James has filed a contempt motion against Bernadette Patel, another Red Rose Rescuer, for violating a 15-foot buffer zone at Planned Parenthood clinics in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The trial date is pending.

Sidewalk counseling is the ongoing legal battleground for pro-life activists. The Supreme Court is considering whether to take up two cases involving so-called "abortion bubbles" that could allow protesters to get as close as 8 feet to women entering clinics.