Pro-life activist Heather Idoni, who was imprisoned by the Department of Justice under the Biden administration for trying to rescue the unborn at a late-term abortion clinic in Washington D.C., continues to suffer gross mistreatment at the hands of the U.S. Marshals.

Idoni and her husband, who are both heavily involved in pro-life work, have five biological children and have adopted 10 boys from Ukraine.

Heather has been behind bars since August 2023 and has been convicted and sentenced in two trials — one in Washington, D.C. and another in Nashville, Tennessee — on charges of violating the pro-abortion FACE Act and “conspiracy against rights.” The DOJ and FBI have been heavily involved in both trials, which have targeted peaceful pro-lifers for defending the unborn. Idoni faces further charges in a third trial in Detroit, Michigan, on the same charges.

Calvin Zastrow, fellow pro-life activist and co-defendant in the Nashville case, notified CatholicVote that due to the various trials Idoni has been subject to, she is often moved between federal prisons. Three times now, during transit, the U.S. Marshal responsible for Idoni has tightened the chain around her waist so tight it has been difficult for her to breathe.

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The last time this occurred, the Marshal effectively issued a death threat, warning that if Idoni complained, the officer would tighten the chain as much as possible the next time, according to Zastrow. CatholicVote notified Congress of the mistreatment and death threat, and Congressman Chris Smith, Co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and Co-chair of the Pro-life Caucus for the House, has intervened directly with the U.S. Marshals.“Congressman Smith has been assisting Ms. Idoni—and other pro-life advocates who have been treated unjustly—with various issues over the past several months,” Michael Finan, spokesperson for Smith, told CatholicVote.

Idoni has diabetes and suffered a stroke this past spring just a few months after being held in solitary confinement with the lights of her cell kept on continually for 22 days. The treatment qualifies under U.N. standards in the Nelson Mandela Rules as prolonged solitary confinement and torture.

While held in federal prison in Washington, D.C., Idoni was denied some of her diabetes medication as well as essential heart medication prescribed by her doctor following her stroke in March, until Congress directly intervened in the matter. At the time, following a phone call during which Idoni began to experience heart palpitations, this journalist contacted the D.C. Police, who transported Idoni in an emergency dispatch to a hospital for monitoring. The incident resulted in her medication being properly administered thereafter.

While presently awaiting trial in Detroit, Idoni has been placed again in solitary confinement, detained in her cell for 23 hours each day, according to Zastrow. Congress is aware of her mistreatment while behind bars and is working with the U.S. Marshals to rectify the situation.

As CatholicVote has reported, Congressman Chip Roy last week called on fellow members of Congress to repeal the FACE Act, which pro-abortion Democrat President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994 at the request of abortion lobbyists after Planned Parenthood facilities began to close across the country due to the peaceful protests of Operation Rescue. As Roy noted, the FACE Act has become “one of the Biden-Harris administration’s favorite tools to attack the pro-life movement.”

“The administration has disproportionately used it in instances of peaceful, everyday Americans protesting abortion while largely turning a blind eye to hundreds of recorded, violent attacks on pregnancy resource centers and churches in the wake of the leaked Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision,” Roy said.

Roy detailed that his office was able to confirm that “as of May 2024, the Biden-Harris DOJ had charged 24 FACE Act cases against 55 defendants. Two of the cases were filed on behalf of pregnancy resource centers.

“This means that nearly 92% of all Biden-Harris FACE Act cases were brought against pro-life demonstrators, despite over 285 churches and 94 pregnancy resource centers and pro-life groups being attacked and vandalized since May 2022,” Roy decried.

The Biden DOJ has combined FACE violation charges with the charge of “conspiracy against rights” to threaten pro-life activists with 11 years in prison. Former President Donald Trump has condemned the weaponization of federal agencies against pro-life Americans, calling for the release of the pro-lifers the Biden DOJ has thrown behind bars.

LifeNews Note: Louis Knuffke writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.