A convicted criminal who argued vandalizing pro-life pregnancy centers with threatening messages was not a “conspiracy against rights” lost in court Thursday.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Gabriella Oropesa’s conviction for teaming up with other radicals to spray-paint two pregnancy resource centers in Florida with statements such as “if abortions aren’t SAFE then niether [sic] are you” in May and July 2022. The ruling delivers long-overdue accountability after a wave of pro-abortion violence in 2022 and provides a framework for prosecuting more conspiracies under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, Department of Justice (DOJ) officials said on X.
“The [Civil Rights Division] just secured a huge win in the Eleventh Circuit,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Jesus Osete said Thursday.” Justice has been served for these crisis-pregnancy centers that were vandalized after Dobbs,” he added, referring to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June 2022 that found no constitutional right to an abortion.
An attorney for Oropesa did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
A three-judge panel disagreed with Oropesa that the “conspiracy against rights” statute, known as Section 241, cannot apply to violations of the FACE Act, which criminalizes obstructing access to pro-life pregnancy centers or abortion facilities. “We therefore hold that conspiracy to violate the FACE Act falls squarely within Section 241’s prohibition against conspiracies to violate a ‘right’ secured by the ‘laws of the United States,’” judges wrote.
Oropesa was sentenced to 120 days’ imprisonment with three years of supervised release and was released in August, court and prison records show. She also settled a civil lawsuit from former Republican Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody in July 2024, requiring her to pay $13,000 in fines and stay at least 100 feet away from the targeted facilities.
The Biden-Harris administration’s DOJ sought the identities of pregnancy center vandals for graffiti or arson in 2022 but failed to turn up results for many, instead using the FACE Act mainly against abortion clinic protesters, the DCNF previously reported. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon promised to fairly protect pro-life facilities under President Donald Trump, who appointed her.
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