Meet the elderly and infirm women now in prison for pro-life activism (2024)

Another Catholic, Joan Andrews Bell, 76, was found guilty on Sept. 15, 2023, of felony conspiracy against civil rights and violating the FACE Act.

Bell, of Montague, New Jersey, was sentenced to 27 months of incarceration and has been serving time in the Alexandria Detention Center, but she will be moved, according to her husband.

Speaking to CNA, Bell’s husband, Chris Bell, said he is offering the pain of being separated from his wife in reparation for the sins of abortion. The Bells have seven children and seven grandchildren.

“One day at a time, one prayer at a time, I’m getting through,” he said. “It’s a very unusual position to be in at this point in our lives because I rely on her a lot for the family. Even though our children are not children, they’re young adults, still, it’s a very active and big family. And I’m missing my better half.”

Chris said that although the separation is “incredibly disorienting,” he fully supports his wife. “She should be here because in a just society, she would be appropriately applauded. And in an unjust society, she is condemned. And so we’re all condemned.”

Joan spends most of her days praying all four mysteries of the rosary, novenas, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and watching Mass on EWTN’s television channel, Chris said. She has even started her own “inside prison ministry” using her “listening ear” to encourage some of her fellow inmates to pursue a better path in life, he said.

Paulette Harlow, 75, sentenced to 24 months of incarceration

Another elderly convict in the case — and the sister of Jean Marshall — is Paulette Harlow, 75, of Kingston, Massachusetts. Harlow, a Catholic, was found guilty on Nov. 16, 2023, of felony conspiracy against civil rights and violating the FACE Act.

She was sentenced to 24 months of incarceration but has remained under house arrest throughout the proceedings of the case because of her severe health issues.

Speaking to CNA from her home in a phone call in early June, she said she has multiple health issues: diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, spinal stenosis, severe arthritis in her neck, sleep apnea, bronchial asthma, fibromyalgia, neuropathy in both of her feet, migraine headaches, arthritis in her right hip, psoriasis in her left hip, and tinnitus in her left ear, which is causing short-term memory loss.

Harlow’s lawyer, Allen Orenberg, told CNA last November after her conviction that he was “optimistic” that the judge would sentence Harlow to home detention, given her health issues.

“Mrs. Harlow has some significant medical issues that need to be addressed on a regular basis. And the judge said on the record that this will allow her to see her doctors rather than having to deal with the Bureau of Prisons at this stage where the level or the quality of medical care may not be the same,” he said.

But he was wrong. On May 31, Judge Kollar-Kotelly, who sentenced each of the defendants in the case, handed down a sentence of two years of imprisonment.

Orenberg told CNA after her sentencing that Harlow would be sent to a “medical prison,” a facility that is able to offer a high level of care.

But Harlow is still at home, under house arrest, while awaiting a spot to open up in the medical prison. She told CNA that she gets no credit for time served.

She said that during her eight months of confinement, she has not been legally allowed to leave her home to attend Mass at her local parish. On several occasions, a priest has come to her home to celebrate Mass. Her husband brings her home holy Communion consistently, she said.

She told CNA that she is “concerned” about going to the prison but “not afraid because I know wherever I’m going, Jesus is going before me.”

Leaving her husband, she said, will be the hardest part. Harlow said it was an “honor to work and stand up before the unborn.”

“I’m heartbroken for all of us. I’m heartbroken for America. I really am,” she said.