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First on Fox: When Joan Bell, 76, received the news, she was one of the pro-life activists pardoned by the president. donald trump On Thursday afternoon, she was in disbelief.
“I didn’t know if that meant we were dating in a few weeks or a few months, or what. I didn’t really know, but I knew we forgive each other,” Bell, a grandmother of eight, told Fox News. Digital Friday. “Well, then I ran upstairs because I had a rosary every night.”
After finishing his prayers and bible study With other inmates, Bell, a lifelong advocate, was told by several other inmates that her husband, Christopher Bell, was on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show saying she was actually one of the other 23 others. losses.
Pro-life protesters could face up to 10 years in prison: ‘Political witch hunt’
President Donald Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists on Thursday. (Getty/Christopher Bell)
“That was overwhelmingly beautiful,” Bell recalled. “Everyone applauded.” A guard then told him to pack his things for his release later that night.
“We’re so grateful to Trump. And just feeling the fresh air, God’s beautiful air, just wonderful,” Bell said. “Just being outside and being with my husband, my son, just glorious. There are no words to describe that kind of freedom.”
She added that she and her husband will be taking a “second honeymoon” soon.
Bell, who lives in New Jersey, was sentenced to more than two years in prison in November 2023 for participating in a “blockade,” conspiring with other activists at a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic in October 2020, according to President Biden’s . Department of Justice (DOJ).
Pro-life Activists Plead Guilty to Conspiracy Charges for 2020 ‘Rescue Action’ at DC Clinic
Joan Bell, 76, (center) is shown with her church community and her husband Christopher Bell after President Donald Trump pardoned her and 22 others on Thursday. (Christopher Bell)
Prosecutors from the DOJ Civil Rights Division and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia argued pro-life activists He violated the Face Act of 1994, a federal law that prohibits using physical force, threats of force, or intentionally damaging property to prevent someone from obtaining or providing abortion services.
The activists were sentenced by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, a Clinton appointee, and immediately stopped.
As he signs the pellets on Thursday, just one day before Friday’s annual March for life Rally, Trump said, “should not have been prosecuted.”
Pro-life protesters pardoned by Trump, Fox confirms
“Many, many of them are older people,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this. They will be very happy.”
Bell, along with Paula Paulette Harlow, Jean Marshall and John Hinshaw, were in their 70s when they were jailed.
“That he personally knew our case is so moving,” Bell said of Trump. “I want to give him a hug.”
Lawyers of the Thomas More Society He formally requested pardons from the Trump administration earlier this month for the 21 pro-life advocates the law firm represented.
President Donald Trump signs documents as he issues executive orders and pardons for the January 6 defendants in the Oval Office of the White House on Inauguration Day in Washington on January 20, 2025. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)
“The heroic peaceful pro-lifers unjustly imprisoned by the Biden Department of Justice will now be freed and able to return to their families, eat a family meal, and enjoy the freedom that should never have been taken away in the first place,” Steve Crampton, Advisor principal of the Thomas More Society, said in a statement.
“These heroic peaceful pro-lifers were treated disgracefully by the Biden Justice Department, with many of them brand criminals and losing many rights we take for granted as American citizens.”
In a previous interview with Fox News Digital, Crampton said it was difficult to find a “fair jury” and that most jurors were planned paternity donors or pro-choice advocates in the cases. He called Washington, D.C., the “most pro-abortion city in America.”
“She can say her pro-death words, but we weren’t allowed to say pro-life words,” Bell said of the judge at the trial. However, he said it was more “heartbreaking” to be prosecuted for his religious beliefs.
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This week, Trump also moved to pardon more than 1,000 January 6 rioters who were jailed, along with numerous other executive orders related to immigration and cryptocurrency and orders to declassify the MLK and JFK files.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division for comment.
