Personal religious beliefs are not an excuse to break the law, a Manhattan judge said Tuesday before sentencing a notorious anti-abortion activist to more than three years for violently blocking patients from entering Planned Parenthood on Bleecker St.
The message was delivered along with the prison term to Bevelyn Beatty Williams, 33, of Ooltewah, Tenn., who’s originally from Staten Island and has described herself as the “wife of Christ.”
“You cannot commit crimes even in the name of a religious cause,” Manhattan Federal Court Judge Jennifer Rochon said in imposing the 41-month term. “People were trying to give and get legal medical services.”
A jury found Williams guilty on Feb. 12 of violating the Freedom Of Access To Clinic Entrances Act on June 19 and June 20, 2020, when she blocked women from accessing the clinic through physical and verbal threats, injuring a volunteer escorting patients in the process.
Bevelyn Beatty and Edmee Chavannes
Instagram Edmee Chavannes, left, and Bevelyn Beatty Willims are pictured outside a Planned Parenthood in this file photo.
Planned Parenthood provides a wide range of medical services other than abortion for people with and without health insurance, including general gynecological care, breast exams, STD testing, birth control, HPV vaccines, help quitting smoking, and other services.
At trial, witnesses testified that they saw Williams using her body as a barrier to the facility and directing other anti-abortion protesters to stop people from going inside. Jurors heard she threatened staff with “war,” telling the chief administrative officer she would “terrorize this place” and that “we’re gonna terrorize you so good, your business is gonna be over, mama.”
“Out of all the appointments today, only one couple came in,” prosecutors quoted Williams as bragging in filings to the judge ahead of the sentencing.
The feds, who brought the case in December 2022, presented evidence at the trial earlier this year showing how the situation turned violent on the second day of the protests when Williams crushed a volunteer’s hand inside a door as they tried to facilitate a colleague’s entrance.
“If I wasn’t saved [by Christ], I would have punched that woman in the face,” Williams said in court Wednesday, however adding, “In my heart, I would have never wanted that woman’s hand to be hurt.”
The New York native said she obtained an abortion when she was 15 and that it “took a toll on me,” leading her to prevent others from accessing the same healthcare, claiming, “I’m not judging on girls waiting to go in there to get an abortion.”
“I gave my life to Christ,” Williams said, later acknowledging she “got too loud.”
The same month as the Bleecker St. encounters, Williams and a codefendant, Edmee Chavannes, were arrested for smearing paint over a Black Lives Matter mural on the street outside Trump Tower.
Both women have live-streamed their stunts and boasted about having security protection from right-wing group the Proud Boys. They were accused of routinely harassing patients in a now-settled civil suit brought by the New York attorney general in 2021.
“Bevelyn Beatty Williams repeatedly intimidated and interfered with individuals seeking and providing critical reproductive health services. She did so by physically blocking access to clinics, threatening staff, and by force,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
Williams and Chavannes were acquitted of another count accusing them of carrying out a multi-year campaign to block women from accessing reproductive medical care in New York, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida.
A doctor from a Planned Parenthood in Fort Myers, Texas testified that care was delayed for several patients scheduled to have time-sensitive procedures — or risk bleeding, infection, and severe pain — when Williams, Chavannes, and others blocked entrance to the facilities in January 2022.
Six months later, Williams invaded a clinic in Atlanta and screamed at a patient alone in a waiting room with other rioters until the patient left, federal prosecutors alleged at the trial.
The same month, she stopped patients from entering a clinic in Nashville, leading to a conviction for trespassing and a 30-day jail term.
Williams’ lawyer, Calvin Scholar, told The News he would request the Bureau of Prisons allow his client to serve her term close to friends and family.
“We accept the jury’s verdict,” Scholar said. “You know, the sentence is harsh, it’s definitely harsh.”
A rep for Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
