Pro-life Activist Facing 18 Months Prison for Helping Women Inside Abortion Facility

She wished to reach out in love, support them, and let them know they would have help if they brought a child into the world.

By Lianne Laurence
Life Site News

Pro-life activist Mary Wagner is facing a possible jail sentence of 18 months after an Ontario judge found her guilty on Tuesday of mischief and breach of probation.

Justice Rick Libman of the Ontario Court of Justice convicted Wagner on charges arising from her December 12, 2016, arrest at the Bloor West Village Women’s Clinic, where she had tried to persuade women to choose life for their unborn children.

After delivering his verdict, Libman deferred sentencing Wagner to September 12, so she can prepare.

He told the 43-year-old Wagner, who is representing herself, that she can submit evidence on her behalf at the sentencing hearing, such as character references.

“I intend to seek some reference letters, not just for my own character but in support of the unborn,” Wagner told LifeSiteNews.

She wants to “open it up to the larger community” to submit letters “that can speak to the fact that it’s not just one person in court, one person, so to speak, breaking the law, but many people who support justice for the unborn.”

Wagner’s trial began May 25 and proceeded intermittently until closing arguments on June 29. It was complicated and delayed because the Crown brought an extraordinary application for a media publication ban.

Trial judge Libman ruled on the ban June 9, but Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer subsequently granted an interim ban on June 12, on a purported emergency basis. 

Nordheimer's ban prohibits the publication of the names of three abortion center personnel who testified against Wagner. LifeSiteNews is fighting the ban, which is expected to be argued on September 18.

In delivering his verdict on Tuesday, Libman said Wagner testified on her own behalf that she wanted to offer alternatives to abortion to women in the abortion centre.

"She wished to reach out in love, support them,” and let them know they would have help if they brought a child into the world, Libman related.

Life Site News continues