Pro-lifers pardoned by Trump describe the suffering they endured in prison

Joining me on this episode of The John Henry Westen Show are recently pardoned pro-life activists Will Goodman, Jean Marshall, and Paulette Harlow, as well as Paulette’s husband, John. We discussed their arrests, traumatic experiences in prison, how they offered their suffering for the unborn, the importance of pro-life activism, and more.

After briefly expressing their gratitude to LifeSite for the letters sent to and the prayers offered for them, I asked Jean Marshall about the brutal pain she endured while in custody.

Marshall explained that when she was first taken into custody, she was painfully shackled to her ankles. Once she arrived at the jail, the police removed her hip stabilizing belt she needed for a scheduled hip surgery, which the judge didn’t allow her to have before she went to prison in the first place.

“My lawyer asked the judge if I could be sentenced after the surgery because it was already scheduled in October, and she said, ‘No.’ And then I asked her again at the sentencing … and again she said ‘No.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t want to have the surgery in prison. I don’t think that’s a good idea,’” Marshall said. “I just didn’t understand that I couldn’t understand why.”

Then Marshall detailed how, during her first three weeks in prison, she became very sick but wasn’t allowed to be treated or even given warm clothing. Even after X-rays showed pulmonary infiltrates indicating that she had pneumonia, she still wasn’t allowed to be treated for the longest time.

“When I saw the reports saying there were infiltrates, I knew I had pneumonia. And I said, ‘I’m entitled to be treated, I’m entitled to a diagnosis,’” she said.

Eventually, by the grace of God, Marshall was given medication that healed the pneumonia.

A bit later in the episode, Goodman told me about the horrible food and a tooth infection that wasn’t treated for months at the federal holding prison in Alexandria, Virginia.

“The people who worked in the kitchen said the food was often stamped, and it said, ‘Not fit for human consumption.’ And I had a terrible infected tooth, and they said they couldn’t give me anything for it or do anything, just pull it out..."...

Goodman explained that he was then transferred to Federal Correctional Institution Danbury in Connecticut, highlighting the deplorable living conditions there and contrasted their experiences with that of the “transgender” inmates.

“It had been a condemned cell block, on the ceiling led paint was chipping. … This prison was built in the late 1930s and there was asbestos in certain spots. And one of the most egregious things was we went about 15 days without being given any toilet paper,” he said.

“Meanwhile, men who were suffering gender dysphoria, men who were wearing prison dresses, some even had had operations to physically alter their bodies, mutilate their bodies. They could order in and get mascara, they could get lipstick, perfume, all of these were available, and yet we didn’t have toilet paper.”