Joan Andrews Bell went to jail singing this week after supporters gave her a standing ovation. She has already been terribly treated while in prison on remand, for her part in a peaceful prayer vigil at an abortion mill.
On Wednesday, May 15, the veteran pro-life activist, 76, was sentenced in a Washington, D.C., court to 27 months in jail, community service, and a $125 which she said she will not pay. Christopher Bell, Joan’s husband, has said that the human rights activist refused to make any compromise that might suggest regret on her part.
“In court … Joan said to the judge, ‘In conscience, I cannot pay any fine. Also, I cannot accept probation as it violates my conscience.’”
When U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia Colleen Kollar-Kotelly also informed Joan Bell that she would have to do community service, the pro-life prisoner “quietly, yet forcefully” explained that she would not do it.
According to Christopher Bell, Joan said: “It violates my conscience. I cannot do something in reparation for something that the court should be doing: protecting children.” She also said that she would not volunteer for probation, as she did not agree that she had done “anything bad.”
Kollar-Kotelly told Joan that if she didn’t work with the probation office there would “be consequences” and that she would “spend more time in jail.”
“I would rather do that than give a bad example,”