An 89-year-old woman gave powerful testimony about her experience in a Communist death camp Thursday morning as she was sentenced to three years probation over her FACE Act conviction for a peaceful protest in Tennessee in March 2021.
Eva Edl spoke at her sentencing hearing of how her Christian faith and childhood experience in a Yugoslavian concentration camp inspired her to pro-life activism. She was convicted in April of violating the FACE Act, a Clinton-era law that made it a crime to sit or stand in front of the doors of an abortion facility.
“I have been rescuing babies since 1988,” Edl told federal Judge Chip Frensley in a court filled with dozens of supporters. “What I’m doing is for the love of Jesus alone, no other benefit.”
Edl was charged by the Biden-Harris administration for her participation in a protest in a hallway outside the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. During the sit-in, Edl sang hymns, prayed, and urged women not to get abortions.
“I’ve paid the price,” Edl said of her pro-life work. “It hurts deeply when you do what God says and you’re totally misunderstood.”
Holding up a well-worn Bible in the courtroom, Edl said, “I believe in this book,” saying she took it as her guide. Edl referenced the Book of Genesis, saying that “human life is made in the image of God.”
Edl also spoke of her own experience as a child “when I was declared to be inhuman.”
When she was 9 years old, Edl and her family were imprisoned by Communist dictator Josip Tito because they were ethnic Germans. She said that she and her family were crammed into cattle cars and forced into camps to die.
“I wish Christians or caring people would have stood on the tracks,” to stop the train that was taking her family away, she said. Edl survived her imprisonment and moved to the United States, where she became involved in the pro-life movement.
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Justice Department lawyer Kyle Boynton pushed for Edl to get three years probation, saying that the case was not about her faith or political views, but about “compliance” with federal law. Edl’s lawyer asked for just one year of probation, pointing to “devotion to her faith” and peaceful nature.
Edl was eligible for a prison sentence of up to six months for her conviction.
Frensley said that while he acknowledged Edl’s beliefs, she had engaged in a “clear violation of the law.” He said that following religious beliefs doesn’t excuse violations of federal law.
Prior to sentencing, Edl gathered with supporters outside the courthouse to sing hymns like “It is Well with My Soul.” She told the group that all she wanted for the day “is for the Lord to speak through me.”
Another protester who was with Edl at Carafem is set to be sentenced Thursday afternoon.
