African American Pastor Sentenced to Jail for Opposing Abortion on Public Sidewalk

OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 19 /Christian Newswire/ -- Today the Rev. Walter Hoye of Berkeley, California was sentenced to serve 30-days in county jail by Judge Hing of the Alameda Superior Court after being found guilty on January 15, 2009, of unlawfully approaching a person entering an abortion clinic in Oakland. The court is allowing Rev. Hoye to serve his time by an alternative method like community service. Reverend Hoye was fined a total of $1,130 and ordered to stay away from the clinic.

Dozens in the African-American community from around the nation who came out in support of Rev. Hoye were outraged by the sentence. The consensus of these leaders is that it was a travesty that Rev. Hoye was found guilty in the first place for standing in the gap for black children targeted by the abortion industry. Now they are simply enraged.

"It is absolutely incredible that in America an individual can be sentenced to jail for engaging in peaceful free speech activity on a public sidewalk," remarked Allison Aranda, Staff Counsel for Life Legal Defense Foundation. "We will appeal."

Rev. Hoye is an African-American pastor who feels a special calling to work for the end of the genocide-by- abortion taking place in the African-American community. As part of his efforts, he stands in front of an abortion clinic in Oakland with leaflets offering abortion alternatives and a sign reading, "Jesus loves you and your baby. Let us help." That was, until he was found guilty and jailed for "unlawfully" approaching abortion clinic patients because the Oakland City Council passed an ordinance making it a crime to stand on a public sidewalk offering alternatives to abortion.

According to 2004 statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics, about 37 percent of pregnancies of black women end in abortion, compared with 12 percent for non-Hispanic white women and 19 percent for Hispanic women.

Attorneys Catherine Short and Mike Millen, who also represented Rev. Hoye at trial, are also engaged in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance and hopeful it will be struck down and Rev. Hoye vindicated.

For more details about Rev. Hoye's case go to www.lldf.org.

Life Legal Defense Foundation was established in 1989, and is a non-profit organization composed of attorneys and other concerned citizens, committed to the sanctity of human life. For more information, call Dana Cody at 916.727.4396.