FIRST ON FOX: When Joan Bell (76) was given the news that 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 going to be out in a few weeks or a few months, or what. I didn’t really know, but I knew we got a pardon,” Bell, a grandmother of eight, told Fox News Digital Friday. – Well, then I ran upstairs because I had a rosary every night.
After she finished her prayers and Studying the Bible with other inmates, Bell, a lifelong pro-lifer, several other inmates said her husband, Christopher Bell, told Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show that she was indeed one of 23 people pardoned.
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President Donald Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists on Thursday. (Getty/Christopher Bell)
“It was incredibly beautiful,” Bell recalled. – Everyone applauded. The guard then told her to pack her belongings for release later that evening.
“We’re so thankful for Trump. And just to feel the fresh air, God’s beautiful air, just wonderful,” Bell said. “Just being out there 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 soon go on a “second honeymoon”.
Bell, who lives in New Jersey, was sentenced to more than two years in prison in November 2023 for his part in the “blockade,” a conspiracy with other activists at an abortion clinic in Washington DC in October 2020, according to President Biden Department of Justice (DOJ).
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Joan Bell, 76 (center), is pictured with her church congregation and husband Christopher Bell after President Donald Trump pardoned her and 22 others on Thursday. (Christopher Bell)
Prosecutors from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia pro-life activists argued violated the FACE Act of 1994, a federal law that prohibits physical force, threats of force, or intentional damage to property to prevent someone from obtaining or providing abortion services.
The activists were sentenced by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Clinton’s nomination, and immediately detained.
As I sign the forgiveness on Thursday, just a day before the annual Friday March for life together, Trump said, “They shouldn’t have been prosecuted.”
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Many, many of them are elderly people, Trump said in the Oval Office. “They should not have been prosecuted. It is a great honor for me to sign this. They will be very happy.”
Bell, along with Paula Paulette Harlow, Jean Marshall and John Hinshaw, were all in their 70s when they were imprisoned.
That he personally knew about our case is so touching, Bell said of Trump. – I want to hug him.
Lawyers from of the Thomas More Society formally requested clemency from the Trump administration earlier this month for 21 pro-life lawyers the law firm represented.
President Donald Trump signs documents as he issues executive orders and pardons for defendants Jan. 6 in the Oval Office of the White House on Inauguration Day in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)
“Heroic pro-lifers unjustly imprisoned by the Biden Justice Department will now be freed and able to return home to their families, eat a family meal and enjoy a freedom that should never have been taken away from them,” Steve Crampton, Senior Advisor to the Thomas The sea, it says in the press release.
“The Biden Department of Justice has treated these heroic peace fighters shamefully, labeling many of them as criminals and losing many of the 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 of the jurors were either Planned Parenthood donors or pro-choice in the cases. He called Washington, DC, “the most abortion town in America.”
“She can say her words for death, but we weren’t allowed to say the words for life,” Bell said of the judge at the trial. However, she said it was more “heartbreaking” to be prosecuted for her religious beliefs.
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This week, Trump also moved to pardon more than 1,000 Jan. 6 rioters who had been jailed, along with numerous other executive orders related to immigration and cryptocurrencies, and orders to declassify the MLK and JFK files.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division for comment.
