Woman Sentenced to 41 Months for Blocking Entrance to Planned Parenthood
The New York Times
Bevelyn Beatty Williams, an anti-abortion activist, physically confronted patients in 2020 as they tried to enter a health clinic in Manhattan, prosecutors said.
A Tennessee anti-abortion activist was sentenced to over three years in prison on Tuesday after she tried to block patients from entering a Planned Parenthood clinic in Lower Manhattan in June 2020.
A New York jury found in February that the activist, Bevelyn Beatty Williams, had violated a federal law protecting access to reproductive health clinics when she threatened patients, and in some cases physically confronted them, as they tried to enter Planned Parenthood’s Manhattan Health Center. Ms. Beatty Williams, who is originally from Staten Island, cited her Catholic faith in defense of her actions, according to court documents.
On Tuesday, a judge sentenced Ms. Beatty Williams to 41 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release. The judge recommended that Ms. Beatty Williams be transferred to a prison in Tennessee with mental health facilities.
The federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act “prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services,” according to the Department of Justice.
“Bevelyn Beatty Williams repeatedly intimidated and interfered with individuals seeking and providing critical reproductive health services,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “She did so by physically blocking access to clinics, threatening staff and by force.”
On June 19 and June 20, 2020, prosecutors said, Ms. Beatty Williams “participated in an organized protest” outside the Manhattan Planned Parenthood. The clinic sees up to 100 patients each day and provides a variety of services, including abortion, birth control, pregnancy testing and cancer screening. Ms. Beatty Williams livestreamed and boasted about her actions on her Instagram page, according to court documents.
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