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Below is the full statement of pro-life advocate John Hinshaw, 69, which he movingly spoke before the court after a federal judge sentenced him to 27 months in prison for engaging in a prayerful sit-in protest at a Washington D.C. abortion clinic.
It is the middle of the night, which, we know, means early, early morning. My wife rises from our bed and walks her house alone. The slightest discomfort in one of her children displaces her from sleep. The smallest sniffle in one of her grandbabies will disturb her sleep for days. For she is a mother and, as such, is bound to the deepest link on this planet. To call it a bond is an insufficient term. It is a covenantal bond, but this too is an insufficient term of description.
To call it a relationship is an insult. This deep, deep unity is one of those rare, truly inexpressible things that words cannot do justice to. My wife knows she carries the DNA of each and every one of her children into eternal life.
I am a man, and as such, I am only an observer of this prized unity. I cannot share it with my wife. It is enough that I love these same children and grandchildren. It is enough that I would die for them. And her. For this, she lets me live with her — and love her.
My wife knows that as a man I cannot share this with her, so she allows me to sleep on through these lonely hours. This, this sacred unity my country, through her courts, has ferociously attacked throughout my lifetime.
During this unjust imprisonment we were gifted with another baby granddaughter, Charlotte Millie, a feisty little girl who came early — 32 weeks’ gestation. I know this court only considers her a “would-be child” at that age. At 32 weeks’ gestation, she was at the same age as Phoenix, Harriet, Holly, Christopher X, and Angel, the Washington five slain by [D.C. abortionist Dr. Cesare] Santangelo. They are named today in honor of their eternal dignity. What makes my granddaughter a treasure and these five trash?? How is this allowed? HOW IS THIS ALLOWED? It is allowed by courts covering up the crimes of Santangelo.
It’s allowed by the corrupt Department of Justice seeking to destroy the evidence of Santangelo’s crimes. It’s allowed by the FBI providing private security services to Santangelo. Today, we are truth in this court, and the truth is in the ultrasound — we’ve all seen the arms, legs, toes, nose, the smiles, the swallows, the snuggles — why is there fear? New life, new love — why fear? Give them to us, we do not fear them. We will show you how to conquer fear and how to love them and raise them. Give them to us.
Today, I am told is an opportunity for me to say I’m sorry and so I am sorry. Sorry for having failed in the vocation bestowed upon me the day I became a father. The vocation of protecting children. I have failed this miserably, and so I apologize to this court as I believe my failure contributes to the failure of this court to fulfill its vocation to protect the innocent. And this failure of the court thus contributes to my failure.
I am sorry in my failure to the bereaved mother suffering a child lost to abortion. We are a nation of bereaved mothers. All of us know some of the millions of broken hearts. I am sorry I was not there on the day of her crucible. We have the way of healing to offer.
I am sorry to my children, leaving to them the struggle that killed a third of their generation, like World War I returned! Friends they never got to meet. Their generation that dreams the dreams of their phone, not the dreams of their own. We gave them the language of pornography, not the language of love. We told them “despair and go rejoice,” and they have told us in a thousand ways they cannot do both. Of course they can’t. We alone have the words and ways of hope and joy. My patron saint wrote 2,000 years ago: “We know we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. Whoever does not love remains in death” (1 John 3:14).
We extend our hands again to offer the culture of life to this guilty land.
So all the years of court-protected slaughter have led us here, where I stand convicted, though guiltless, sent, as I am, to take upon myself the guilt of this court. I stand here for Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, to accept the punishment rightly hers. The Latin term for this is spem in alium. And as I open my arms to plead the mercy of this court on Kollar-Kotelly, I ask the One True Judge, whom she and I will be seeing very soon, to accept my act of love toward her as expiation of her great guilt of pride, indifference, and intolerance.
So from the depths of my cell I will continue to unite my cries with those of the children, whose cries rise nightly to their mothers’ ears, who weep, with Rachel, for their children who are no more.
It is the same hour of the night my wife arises.
For more information on the unprecedented conviction and sentencing of John Hinshaw and other peaceful pro-life protesters, click here and here.
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