Two Florida residents were indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly targeting and vandalizing several pro-life pregnancy resource centers, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday.
The indictment out of the Middle District of Florida alleges that Caleb Freestone, 27, and Amber Smith Stewart, 23, engaged in a “conspiracy to prevent employees of reproductive health services facilities from providing those services.” Freestone and Stewart allegedly vandalized several facilities and “spray-painted threats.”
“Freestone and Smith-Stewart, and other co-conspirators, are alleged to have spray painted threats, including “If abortions aren’t safe than niether [sic] are you,” “YOUR TIME IS UP!!,” “WE’RE COMING for U,” and “We are everywhere,” on a reproductive health services facility in Winter Haven, Florida. The indictment further alleges that facilities in Hollywood, Florida, and Hialeah, Florida, were also targeted,” according to the DOJ.
The pair are also accused of violating the FACE Act by “using threats of force to intimidate and interfere with the employees of a reproductive health services facility in Winter Haven because those employees were providing or seeking to provide reproductive health services.” Freestone and Smith-Stewart are also allegedly involved with Miami Antifa far-left activists.
“The indictment further alleges that Freestone and Smith-Stewart violated the FACE Act by intentionally damaging and destroying the facility’s property because the facility provides reproductive health services,” the DOJ continued.
If convicted, both Freestone and Smith-Stewart could face a maximum of 12 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $350,000. The FBI Tampa Field Office investigated the case, with assistance from the Miami Police Department.
The Winter Haven facility in Polk County was vandalized in June after the Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The Ledger reported at the time that the attack was claimed by “Jane’s Revenge,” a pro-abortion extremist group that has claimed attacks against pro-life pregnancy centers and churches across the country.
After the Dobbs decision was leaked but before Roe was overturned, Jane’s Revenge penned an open letter to pro-life centers across the country threatening acts of domestic terrorism. In the letter, the radical group took ownership for acts of violence and vandalism at pregnancy centers throughout the country and promised to escalate their tactics if pro-lifers continue operations as usual. The group declared:
Your 30 days expired yesterday. We offered an honorable way out. You could’ve walked away. Now the leash is off. And we will make it as hard as possible for your campaign of oppression to continue. We have demonstrated in the past month how easy and fun it is to attack. We are versatile, we are mercurial, and we answer to no one but ourselves.
Promising to take “increasingly drastic measures” without giving any details, the group said it would attack these centers both overtly and covertly until insurance companies and financial backers “realize you are a bad investment.”
The indictments come just days after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced $25,000 rewards to anyone who can provide information leading to arrest and conviction of suspects in several attacks against pro-life pregnancy resource centers across the country. The FBI made the announcement several months after the crimes occurred, all while the DOJ used the FACE Act to go after several pro-life activists (see here, here, and here).
Since the leak of the Dobbs draft decision in May of 2022, at least 79 pro-life pregnancy centers have been attacked, vandalized or firebombed, according to an attack tracker kept by Catholic Vote. During a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee in November of 2022, FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted that approximately 70 percent of abortion-related threats of violence in the United States since the Dobbs decision have been against pro-life groups.