A 59-year-old woman said she just wanted to hold her new grandson as she was given time to speak during her sentencing in federal court in Nashville on Friday over her participation in a peaceful protest in March 2021 at a Tennessee abortion facility.
Heather Idoni was sentenced to eight months in prison over her conviction on violating the FACE Act and conspiracy against rights. Judge Aleta Trauger said Idoni will serve the time concurrently with the two years she is currently serving for a conviction on similar charges out of Washington, D.C. She will likely serve little extra time due to the new sentence because she has about one year left on her D.C. sentence. She was also given three years of supervised release followed by one year of probation.
The Biden administration’s Justice Department had hoped for the eight month sentence to be added to the end of her D.C. sentence so that she would be incarcerated for 32 months total. However, Trauger ruled against their petition for the time to be served consecutively.
Idoni was convicted in January over a sit-in protest at the Carafem Health Center in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. During the protest, Idoni and a group of others sang, prayed, and urged women not to get abortions.
The conspiracy against rights charge was originally a Reconstruction-era statute intended for use against members of the Ku Klux Klan that could be punished by over ten years in prison. The Biden admin has been using it to prosecute pro-lifers across the country.
Idoni, wearing a green jumpsuit and leg shackles, was given an opportunity to speak in court, during which she spoke of her Christian faith and the hardships she had already endured in federal custody. She began by reading from Proverbs 24:10-12, which talks about rescuing “those being led away to death” and holding “back those staggering toward slaughter.”
Idoni also said that federal marshals had mistreated her since she entered federal custody back in August 2023. She said that some marshals had put chains so tight around her waist that she struggled to breathe when she sat down and that one marshal told her she would tighten it more if she complained again.
Since entering federal custody, Idoni has also had three stints put into her heart, complicating her treatments as she has been transported across the country to at least eight different prisons.
“I would love to be home with my family,” she said. “I would love to hold my new grandson.”
DOJ lawyer Wilfred Beaye argued that the sentence should be tacked onto her current time because she has a “history of disrespecting the law” and said that eight months was low on what they could have asked for due to federal sentencing guidelines.
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William Conway, Idoni’s lawyer, requested that she be sentenced to time served and three years of supervised release.
Trauger said that she took Idoni’s history of charitable work, including mission work to Ukraine and adoption of kids, as well as her difficult childhood and health problems as mitigating factors. She said that aggravating factors were that she had a “blindspot” for her beliefs that led her to “inflict emotional damage on other people.”
After sentencing, a group of supporters waited outside the courthouse to wave signs as she was driven away by federal marshals to a federal prison in Kentucky where she is currently incarcerated. A few held up signs saying “happy birthday” because Idoni will be turning 60 on Saturday.
