Three pro-life activists targeted by the Biden administration over a peaceful protest at a Tennessee abortion facility were sentenced by a federal judge Tuesday to three years of probation, including 90 days of house arrest. 

Judge Chip Frensley sentenced Eva Zastrow, James Zastrow, and Paul Place, who were convicted in April of violating the FACE Act, a Clinton-era law guaranteeing entry into abortion facilities. The trio faced a maximum penalty of six months in prison, five years of probation, and a $10,000 fine.

The three were also sentenced to time served, which began back in October 2022 when they were first charged. The terms of their house arrest will include exceptions for work and church.

The Biden Justice Department charged the activists over their participation in a pro-life protest at Carefem, a Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, abortion facility, on March 5, 2021. On that day, a group of demonstrators gathered on the second floor of an office building in the hallway outside Carafem. The group prayed, sang hymns, and urged women showing up to the clinic to not get abortions. 

Prosecutors said the protesters sat in front of doors at Carafem and blocked women from coming inside. Frensley convicted them during a bench trial in April after less than 30 minutes of deliberation. 

During their trial, lawyers for the defendants said that their clients were merely practicing their faith in a peaceful manner. Place’s lawyers argued the trial demonstrated massive overreach by the federal government, saying that the Biden administration was prosecuting “people who were simply expressing their beliefs in a non-violent way.”

The three protesters spoke of their Christian faiths when given an opportunity to talk during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing.

James Zastrow said he was “obeying a higher law” when he took part in the protest, and expressed his belief that “preborn children are people.”

Eva Zastrow said her only ambition was to love God and her neighbors. She said that “God personally identified with the weak and vulnerable” and that she didn’t want anyone harmed at Carafem. Choking up, she read a poem she had written about the value of children. 

Place said everything he did at Carafem was done out of love, adding that “children are a blessing from the Lord.”

Over a dozen supporters gathered Tuesday morning outside the courthouse to pray and sing before the sentencing. They sang songs Christian hymns including “Rescue the Perishing” and “Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus.”

Earlier this month, four others charged with violating the FACE Act and a felony charge of conspiring against civil rights over the same protest were sentenced in Nashville. One protester, Calvin Zastrow, was given six months in prison over his participation in the protest. The Justice Department had requested over two years of incarceration. 

Three of his co-defendants, Paul Vaughn, Dennis Green, and Coleman Boyd, all avoided jail time.