An 89-year-old survivor of a Soviet-era concentration camp was one of seven individuals convicted this month for obstructing access to an abortion clinic in a northern Detroit suburb.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that Eva Edl and six others were found guilty for their participation in a blockade of a reproductive health care clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan on August 27th.
Edl, as a child in the 1940s, was forced into a concentration camp by Yugoslavian dictator Josip Broz Tito, a communist. Eventually, she fled to the United States.
The defendants were found guilty of a felony conspiracy against rights—a statute initially meant to combat the vigilantism of the Ku Klux Klan—and a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
A sentencing hearing is on the horizon.
In addition to Edl, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Cal Zastrow along with his daughter Eva Zastrow were all convicted by the jury.
The conspiracy charge alone could lead to a 10-and-a-half-year prison sentence for each defendant.
The charges against the seven defendants stemmed from a peaceful protest where they stood outside the Northland Family Planning Clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan alongside other pro-lifers.
Edl and Idoni were also convicted for participating in a pro-life protest at the Women’s Health Clinic in Saginaw, Michigan.
Edl attributed her endurance during the trial to her faith in God and noted that suffering for Jesus’ sake is spiritually refining her.
“We need suffering in our lives in order to be purified and not feel sorry about ourselves,” she said, according to The Daily Wire, adding Christians should say, proverbially, “Hammer away, Lord, at that anvil.”
In early August, Edl attended a prayer gathering, where she told The Daily Wire she is confident in her trust in God as the trial unfolds.
“It doesn’t matter how it turns out, God wins in the end,” she told the outlet, noting — in reference to all the legal fees that are stacking up — she knows “God supplies” for all her needs.
In a previous interview with The Daily Signal, Edl stated that her prayer is for God to be “glorified” throughout the entire ordeal. She also mentioned that she is preparing for the possibility of dying while behind bars.
“When I was indicted, I began to prepare to die there,” she said. “Right now, I am ambivalent. … I’m doing the best I can to get ready. [I] haven’t talked to a funeral director yet.”
