DETROIT—A father of two facing more than a decade in prison over his participation in a peaceful pro-life protest in Michigan said Wednesday that he couldn’t fathom spending another week away from his wife and family.

Joel Curry, of Saginaw, Michigan, faces up to 11 years in federal prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines if convicted of a felony conspiracy against rights and FACE Act charge this month. His trial, alongside that of six co-defendants, began this week at the Theodore Levin courthouse in Detroit.

Curry, a devout Christian and pro-life advocate, was targeted by the Biden administration after he sat and stood in front of the doors of the Northland Family Planning Clinic in Sterling, Michigan. In an interview with The Daily Wire on Wednesday, he said that he couldn’t imagine getting a prison sentence. 

”I don’t want to spend 11 years in prison. I can’t fathom spending 11 years. I can’t fathom spending another week away from my wife, my kids because I’m over here,” he said. “That’s scary.”

He added that, based on sentences coming out of Tennessee for similar charges, he didn’t think he and his co-defendants would get the maximum sentence if convicted. He said that the Justice Department should be referred to as the “department of injustice,” and that it has weaponized the FACE Act to target conservative Christians and pro-life activists. 

Curry, who says he wants to see abortion abolished throughout the country, has a wife and two young children. His youngest, a daughter, was born on July 30. He said he was originally unsure if he would miss the birth or not. 

He has long held pro-life beliefs, but said that it was after watching the movie “Unplanned” that he really started to become active. 

”That movie showed me the horrors of the actual act of abortion and the violence that happens to an unborn child. I saw it and said this is terrible,” he said. “What should I do? I can’t just sit idly by while my neighbor is being killed.”

WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI

Prior to his involvement at the protest in Sterling Heights, Curry said that he frequently offered sidewalk counseling at abortion providers near Saginaw. He said that Christians need to be doing more to stand up for the unborn.

”Christians ought to stand up. We’re not going to create an army and go to vigilante justice, but we’re going to do the most that we can to protect our neighbors whether they’re a second old or 100 years old,” he said. 

Jury selection for Curry and his co-defendants’ trial ended Wednesday after two full days. The others charged include Eva Edl, Cal Zastrow, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Justin Phillips, and Eva Zastrow. 

During his preliminary instructions to the jury, Judge Matthew Leitman said that jurors would be allowed to remain even if they had strong views on abortion, provided they could set them aside for the trial. He said the trial was not about whether abortion was “morally right or morally wrong.”

He repeatedly said throughout the day that there was “so much riding” on the case and that it was very “high stakes.” Leitman said he expects the trial to go on for two to three weeks though some on the defense team told The Daily Wire they don’t think the trial will go on that long. 

The prosecution is being led by U.S. Attorney Frances Carlson and Justice Department trial attorney Laura-Kate Bernstein. 

Caroline Davis, who was initially charged along with the other activists, took a plea deal with the Justice Department and agreed to testify. She pled her felony charges down to a misdemeanor and testified earlier this year against other pro-life defendants in Tennessee.  

Idoni, who is representing herself, appeared in court with handcuffs around her feet and hands. She has been in federal custody after being sentenced to two years in prison over her involvement in another pro-life protest.

Two Olympic boxers who’ve failed past gender tests have easily made their way to gold-medal matches in their respective weight classes at the Paris Games.

Lin Yu‑Ting of Taiwan and Imane Khelif of Algeria failed gender tests facilitated by the International Boxing Association (IBA). Still, the Olympics permitted both fighters to compete in women’s boxing.

Lin and Khelif have notably dominated female opponents. Both have won every single round, and Khelif has even won every judge’s card. They’re now guaranteed either a gold or a silver medal. 

Here’s what you need to know about the controversy.

Protests From Female Opponents 

Unsurprisingly, the fighters’ path to the finals has sparked much outrage and debate. Two of Khelif’s opponents, for example, have made comments about the glaring gender issue. Angela Carini of Italy initially called her match “unjust,” and Hungarian fighter Anna Luca Hamori published numerous posts on social media about Khelif allegedly being male.

As for Lin, Bulgarian fighter Svetlana Staneva made an “X” gesture two times with her hands after losing to Lin – an apparent reference to having two X chromosomes as a female. Staneva’s coach also protested, sharing a note with the press that read, “I only want to play with women I am XX.” Moreover, on Wednesday, Lin’s opponent from Turkey also made the double-X hand gesture after the semifinal match. 

What The IBA Is Saying 

Members of the IBA held a press conference in Paris on Monday and said that Lin and Khelif failed two gender tests, one in 2019 and one in 2023. Chris Roberts, the IBA CEO, said the tests were given to the fighters after they were made aware of concerns about safety from a number of fighters, coaches, and medical staffers.

“Both boxers were asked to take a further blood test,” he said. “That happened the 23rd of March, the results came through and it demonstrated the chromosomes we refer to in competition rules that make both boxers ineligible.”

🚨HAPPENING NOW🚨

The International Boxing Association is holding a press conference in Paris to address the issues surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting.

Highlights so far:

*Both boxers were initially subjected to a chromosomal test by an… pic.twitter.com/659lwIWjLu

— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) August 5, 2024

The presser notably turned testy when Dr. Ioannis Filippatos, the former Chair of the IBA Medical Committee, told reporters that biology and nature cannot change. 

“Why [do] you attack me? Why [do] you attack me?” he asked reporters. “I tried to say that the medical result, blood result, looks and says – the laboratories – that this boxer is male.” 

Some journalists appear to be arguing with Dr. Filippatos, demanding he further clarify whether Khelif and Lin were born female.

“The blood result looks and says, the laboratories, that these boxers are male.” pic.twitter.com/lgs1vxPeb4

— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) August 5, 2024

Moreover, IBA President Umar Kremlev went after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for permitting the boxers to compete with women. He said in a press release that he doesn’t understand why the IOC is “killing” women’s boxing and emphasized that “only eligible athletes should compete in the ring for the sake of safety.”

What The IOC Is Saying

The IOC is sticking by its decision to allow Lin and Khelif to compete against women. IOC spokesman Mark Adams has said that the IBA gender tests are “not credible” because the IBA is not credible, and the reasoning for the gender tests are not credible.

Adams has made it clear that the tests, even if the IBA is right about them, don’t matter to the IOC. “There was no consideration of whether they were correct or not correct because they had no bearing for the eligibility of boxing here,” he stated. 

IOC Gender Standards 

To determine gender, the IOC goes by whatever is listed on a fighter’s passport. “As with previous Olympic boxing competitions, gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport,” Adams stated at a press conference. 

Aside from not testing for sex, Adams has said that testosterone levels don’t really matter, either. “Many women can have testosterone which will be called ‘male levels’ and still be women and still compete as women,” he said. “This idea that you do one test for testosterone and that sorts everything out? Not the case I’m afraid.” 

The IOC, however, has released statements asserting that the fighters are female and were born female. It seems no medical tests are the basis for those statements.  

Do The Fighters Have DSD?

No one has claimed that either boxer has a condition called DSD, though media reports have covered the disorder in relation to the Olympics after speculation swirled online.

DSD stands for “differences of sex development,” and it’s another term for “intersex.” Someone with DSD will have some sort of mismatch between their chromosomes and their genitals. A person could have XY chromosomes, which is the pattern for males, and have ambiguous genitalia, for example.

When Are The Final Matches? 

Khelif will face Yang Liu of China on Friday, at 4:50 p.m. Eastern. Lin’s final match is against Polish fighter Julia Szeremeta on Saturday, at 3:30 p.m. Eastern.