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First to the fox: When Joan Bell, 76, got the news, she was one of the pro-life activists pardoned by the president donald trump By Thursday afternoon, I 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 forgave each other,” Bell, a grandmother of eight, told Digital Friday. “Well, then I ran upstairs because I had a rosary every evening.”
After finishing his prayers and Study of the Bible With other inmates, Bell, a lifelong advocate for life, said several other inmates her husband, Christopher Bell, was on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show that he was indeed one of the other 23 pardoned .
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)
“It was overwhelmingly beautiful,” Bell recalled. “Everybody was clapping.” He was then told by a guard to pack his things for release later that night.
“We’re so thankful for 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 DC 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), poses with her church congregation and husband Christopher Bell after President Donald Trump pardoned her and 22 others Thursday. (Christopher Bell)
Prosecutors in the DOJ Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia pro-life activists argued He violated the FACE Act of 1994, a federal law that prohibits 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 appointment, and immediately arrested.
As they signed the pardons on Thursday, just one day before the annual Friday March for life Rally, Trump said, “They shouldn’t have been persecuted.”
Pro-life protesters pardoned by Trump, Fox confirms
“Many, many of them are seniors,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign it. They will be very happy.”
Bell, along with Paula Paulette Harlow, Jean Marshall and John Hinshaw, were in their 70s when they were imprisoned.
“That he knew personally that our case is so emotional,” Bell said of Trump. “I want to give him a hug.”
Lawyers of the Thomas More Society The Trump administration formally applied for pardons earlier this month for the 21 pro-life advocates represented by the law firm.
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 on Jan. 20, 2025. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)
“The heroic peaceful programmers 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 the freedom that should never have been taken from them in the first place place,” said Steve Crampton, senior councilor of the Thomas More Society, in a statement.
“These heroic peaceful pro-lifers were treated shamefully by Biden’s DOJ, with many of them branded felons and stripped of 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 of the jurors were intended parentage donors or advocates in the cases. He called Washington, DC, 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 took steps to pardon more than 1,000 on January 6 who were imprisoned, along with numerous 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.
