Vandals who attacked pro-life pregnancy center forced to pay settlement

July 2, 2024

The Christian Post reports that a pro-life pregnancy center in Hialeah, Florida has reached a settlement with the vandals who defaced the facility two years ago in a wave of pro-abortion attacks.

First Liberty Institute law firm announced last week in a tweet on X that the Heartbeat of Miami, a pro-life pregnancy center, had “secured justice” after being vandalized in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling which overturned Roe v. Wade.

In explaining what was meant by “justice”, First Liberty Institute said that the “vandals who spray-painted threatening messages on Heartbeat’s property last year will pay for their crimes.”

The federal lawsuit, filed last year, sought damages of $5,000 for each violation committed by defendants Caleb Freestone and Amber Smith-Stewart. The defendants were accused of spray painting threatening messages on the facility including, “if abortions aren’t safe [then] neither are you” and “our rage will not stop” in addition to the symbol for the anarchist movement and the phrase “Jane’s Revenge.” 

In an article published by Life News, First Liberty explained that: “While we cannot publicly discuss the specifics of the settlement quite yet, the vandals associated with Jane’s Revenge who sought to injure, intimidate and interfere with access to Heartbeat of Miami, and several Florida pregnancy resource centers, will be held to account.”

Vandalism of churches and other pro-life pregnancy centers began in May of 2022 when a draft of the Dobbs decision was leaked.

Photo: top, Credit: Screengrab/First Liberty Institute/X