Prosecutors have taken action against a pro-life activist who barricaded himself in a Pennsylvania abortion clinic restroom, which required a SWAT team response.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota resident Matthew Connolly for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act by participating in a Red Rose Rescue at an abortion clinic in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in August 2021.
The FACE Act subjects those who “by force or threat of force or by physical obstruction, intentionally injures, because that person is or has been” providing “reproductive health services” to federal charges.
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“The defendant engaged in conduct calculated to shut down a reproductive health clinic for an entire day, forcing the evacuation of the clinic’s patients and obstructing access to reproductive health services,” Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke said in a statement.
“The Justice Department is committed to enforcing the FACE Act to ensure that providers can continue to provide legal reproductive health services and that patients can obtain them.”
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, details how Connolly “obtained illegal access to a secure patient space at a Planned Parenthood facility in Philadelphia without staff permission or knowledge and barricaded himself in a restroom” for over three hours.
Officials say Connolly refused to leave the restroom despite multiple pleas from clinic staff and a security officer, prompting the abortion center to evacuate all patients and staff.
After the Philadelphia Police Department arrived at the facility and unsuccessfully attempted to get Connolly to leave the restroom, they shut down the streets surrounding the clinic and brought in a SWAT team.
The SWAT team broke down the door and removed Connolly from the facility by carrying him out on a stretcher.
Following Connolly’s removal from the clinic, staff members found red roses in the waiting room, suggesting that the pro-life activist is affiliated with the pro-life group Red Rose Rescue.
The lawsuit identifies Red Rose Rescue as “an anti-abortion group that organizes events across the country in which participants trespass on the property of reproductive health facilities and refuse to leave voluntarily in order to cause the facilities to stop operating.”
Red Rose Rescue took responsibility for orchestrating the events that unfolded at the Philadelphia Planned Parenthood in a post published a week later, expressing gratitude that “Due to the Red Rose Rescue, no unborn children were killed at this PP clinic.”
The complaint stated that “at least 44 surgical and other appointments had to be rescheduled as a result of the Locust Street facility’s closure.”
According to the legal filing, Connolly has been arrested at least eight times by police in at least four states. He has been charged with several violations, including trespassing, resisting arrest and interference with a business. He has four convictions on his record.
The DOJ is seeking a civil penalty of up to $18,444 for first violations and no more than $27,750 for subsequent violations. It also seeks damages up to $5,000 for each person aggrieved by Connolly’s actions and “appropriate injunctive relief.”
Monica Miller, director of Red Rose Rescue affiliate Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, accused authorities of trying to “twist and stretch the language” of the law in their lawsuit.
“This lawsuit against Matthew Connolly is another instance of a weaponized Department of Justice obsessed with persecuting nonviolent pro-lifers,” she told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
On Tuesday, New York’s Democratic Attorney General Letitia James filed a memorandum of law in support of a motion for contempt against Connolly and other pro-life activists affiliated with Red Rose Rescue.
The motion asks the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to hold the defendants in contempt for violating a December 2023 order prohibiting them from going within 15 feet of the doorways or walkway entrances of an abortion clinic.
The document alleges that Red Rose Rescue activist Bernadette Patel violated the order on four occasions. Two violations occurred at a Planned Parenthood in Brooklyn, and the other two took place at a Planned Parenthood in Manhattan. It seeks fines of $500 against Red Rose Rescue per violation for a grand total of $2,000, suggesting that Patel’s rhetoric made it clear that she was aware of the legal proceedings involving the organization.
Patel wrote an op-ed addressing the prosecution of Red Rose Rescue asserting that “Like Satan trying to tempt and lead all followers of Christ to sin, the state is persecuting is, hoping we will falter in our beliefs or stop doing pro-life work.” The pro-life activist vowed, “I certainly won’t, and neither will my friends.”
In a statement announcing the motion, James lamented that “Red Rose Rescue will stop at nothing to interfere with anyone seeking or providing reproductive health care.”
“If Red Rose Rescue and its members want to flagrantly disregard a court order, then they must also be prepared to face the consequences,” James stated. “Too many New Yorkers have suffered at the hands of this hateful group — it is time they be held accountable for their blatant disregard of our laws, our courts, and our bodily autonomy.”
Abortion has been a significant focus point in American politics following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizationdecision, which determined that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion. The Dobbs ruling has caused pro-life activists to call for the repeal of the FACE Act.
Pro-life activist Terrisa Bukovinac insisted to The Christian Post in a previous interview that “there’s no basis for FACE anymore” because “FACE is predicated on the ruling in Roe v. Wade that the Supreme Court now said was ‘egregiously wrong’ from the beginning.” Bukovinac was referring to the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, which Dobbs overturned.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
