Herb Geraghty, a 25-year-old man from Pittsburgh, Pa., was indicted Friday by a federal grand jury for “conspiracy against rights and FACE Act offenses in connection with an alleged reproductive health care clinic blockade.”
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Geraghty was part of a clinic blockade in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 22, 2020, during the pre-vaccine phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pro-life activist group Live Action identified Geraghty – one of 10 people arrested for the blocking the clinic – as a pro-life atheist and director of outreach for Rehumanize International, a pro-life organization. Live Action also said that Geraghty and the other arrestees “worked together to shut down abortion businesses in the Metropolitan Medical Center.”
Other defendants include: Lauren Handy, Jonathan Darnel, Jay Smith, Paulette Harlow, Jean Marshall, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, William Goodman and Joan Bell, said the Justice Department. Some of them traveled from different states to get to D.C. Idoni came from Michigan, Smith and Hinshaw came from New York and Harlow and Marshall traveled from Massachusetts.
An original indictment returned by a federal grand jury this March alleged that they “engaged in a conspiracy to create a blockade at the reproductive health care clinic to prevent the clinic from providing, and patients from receiving, reproductive health services.”
Per the superseding indictment, Geraghty planned the blockade with Handy, who made lodging arrangements and obtained a monetary donation to pay for an Airbnb reservation for herself and Geraghty. It further alleges that the co-conspirators forcefully entered the clinic and used their bodies, furniture, chains and ropes to block two clinic doors.
“Once the blockade was established, Darnel live-streamed footage of his co-defendants’ activities,” said the Justice Department. The indictment also alleges that “all 10 defendants violated the FACE Act by using a physical obstruction to injure, intimidate and interfere with the clinic’s employees and a patient, because they were providing or obtaining reproductive health services.”
If convicted, Geraghty and the other defendants face up to a maximum of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $260,000.
“An indictment is merely an allegation,” according the Justice Department. “All defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law.”
Last November, Geraghty was arrested again for pro-life activities in California, according to a Twitter thread.
Although the unpopular Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health opinion delivered by the U.S. Supreme Court this year overturned Roe v. Wade protections, the FACE Act still protects reproductive health care clinics and their patients in the nation.
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