A Pennsylvania court last week significantly reduced charges against six pro-life advocates who were arrested in July 2025 for offering a witness to women at an abortion facility.
According to Red Rose Rescue’s Facebook post, the pro-lifers had been charged with defiant trespass and disorderly conduct — both criminal misdemeanors — after being arrested for counseling staff members and abortion-minded women and handing out roses at the abortion facility. Red Rose Rescue said the pro-lifers’ presence resulted in the abortion facility closing for the entire day. The pro-lifers also said they were “subjected to rough treatment” by the police and spent days in a “filthy overcrowded county prison” before they were released on bond.
During a Jan. 13 hearing, Judge Kevin Kelly of the Delaware County Court accepted the pro-lifers’ plea deal. Each advocate entered a “no contest” plea, which does not require an admission of guilt. According to Red Rose Rescue, the plea is “unusual” and “provides for the conscience protection of the rescuers who did nothing wrong in their efforts to peacefully intervene to save a human life in immediate mortal danger.”
Kelly gave each advocate “time served,” reduced the charges to a single summary offense — described by Red Rose Rescue as “the equivalent of a parking ticket” — and dropped all misdemeanor prosecution. The pro-lifers do not have to pay fines, perform community service, serve probation, or undergo any other punishments. Their bond money will be returned as well.
Red Rose Rescue called Kelly’s ruling “a modest victory in some respects, but a real victory nonetheless,” and thanked God for the decision.
During the hearing, the pro-lifers had the opportunity to address the court. Each chose to explain their motivations for fighting to protect unborn life, with longtime pro-life advocate Monica Miller speaking first.
“We went to that abortion center to plead for and defend the lives of unborn babies and equally were there to offer help, love, compassion and understanding to the moms scheduled to kill their children,” she told Kelly. “The unborn have a right to exist and we want to work for a culture that accepts all human beings, that respects all human lives, made in the image of God.”
Another pro-lifer, Patrice Woodworth, concluded the remarks to the court with a promise to continue her work, stating, “We shall keep working with confidence because we believe and know that ‘the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome the Light’.”
The post Court drops criminal charges against pro-lifers arrested for witnessing at abortion facility appeared first on CatholicVote org.