Joe Biden's Justice Department locked up pro-life activist Lauren Handy for 57 months over a clinic sit-in.
San Francisco picked up that playbook and turned it on one pro-life woman's Instagram account.
Prosecutors charged Anastasia Rogers over one slang word in a 14-second video, and they refused to quit.
Anastasia Rogers Posted a 14-Second Instagram Video Outside Planned Parenthood
Rogers leads sidewalk outreach in San Francisco for Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust.
She stands outside the Planned Parenthood clinic and offers women pamphlets about pregnancy help – the kind of help Planned Parenthood doesn't sell.
That help is real.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute found pregnancy centers helped more than one million new clients in 2024 – with over $452 million in free and low-cost care and supplies.
In August 2025, Rogers posted a short video built on a popular internet handshake trend – she reaches out her hand on one side, the Planned Parenthood escort appears on the other, and each gets a caption.
Hers read "Unalive them with kindness."
The escort's read "Unalive them."
She captioned the post "Same goal in mind, different methods for sure."
"Unalive" is the slang people use to slip past social media censors who flag the word "kill."
Rogers was pointing at exactly what happens to preborn babies behind those clinic doors.
The video pulled in nearly 400,000 views.
San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins Charged Her Under California's FACE Act
The escort complained to Planned Parenthood and to District Attorney Brooke Jenkins's office, claiming the post was intimidating.
Jenkins's office bought it and charged Rogers under California's version of the FACE Act.
In December 2025, police handcuffed her on the sidewalk while she handed out pregnancy resource pamphlets – outside the 25-foot buffer zone, right where the law says she's allowed to stand.
Life Legal Defense Foundation called her outreach "activity squarely protected by the First Amendment."
As officers took her in, Rogers said she was being arrested "because I'm sidewalk counseling in front of Planned Parenthood, and trying to help women and children."
She faced two misdemeanor counts carrying up to two years behind bars.
A protective order then barred a woman offering mothers help from the one place those mothers needed to hear it.
Rogers didn't flinch.
"If Planned Parenthood thinks that throwing me in jail for 7 hours or 7 days is going to stop me from loving my neighbor – the preborn child, they're wrong," she said.
Ten Jurors Voted Not Guilty and the DA Pushed for a Retrial Anyway
The case went to trial in San Francisco Superior Court in May 2026.
Nine of twelve jurors rejected the claim that she posted the video to intimidate anyone.
Ten of twelve rejected the claim that she filmed the escort to intimidate.
The judge declared a mistrial on June 4.
Any prosecutor with a shred of humility reads that vote and walks away.
Jenkins's office announced it would try her again.
"In my years as a criminal trial attorney, I have never seen or heard of the prosecution re-trying a case after ten jurors voted to acquit the defendant," said Allison Aranda, director of criminal litigation at Life Legal Defense Foundation.
Pro-lifers flooded the DA's office with calls and emails.
In late June, before a second jury was ever seated, the pressure paid off.
Rogers entered a diversion program – no guilty plea, no admission of wrongdoing.
On September 23, every charge was dismissed and the protective order was terminated.
"Anastasia should never have been dragged through a criminal trial for peaceful pro-life advocacy," Life Legal CEO Alexandra Snyder said.
Biden's FACE Act Crackdown On Pro-Lifers Found a New Home in California
Biden's DOJ used the federal FACE Act to hunt down peaceful pro-lifers, and President Trump pardoned 23 of them in January 2025.
In April 2026, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's Justice Department released an 882-page report showing Biden prosecutors took real-time incident reports, social media monitoring, and dossiers on pro-life activists straight from the National Abortion Federation – an abortion industry trade group.
"This department will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice," Blanche said.
Washington shut that machine down, and blue states grabbed the parts.
California keeps a state FACE Act on the books, and Brooke Jenkins showed she'll aim it at a woman armed with pamphlets and a phone.
Planned Parenthood's doors stayed open the whole time – Rogers had to beat a criminal case just to stand outside them again.
Every mother she reaches on that sidewalk is a chance for a baby to be born – and San Francisco tried to lock that chance away.
Sources:
- Cassy Cooke, "Charges dropped against pro-life activist over social media video," Live Action News, September 2026.
- Nancy Flanders, "Pro-lifer arrested outside California Planned Parenthood plans to continue outreach," Live Action News, December 29, 2025.
- Hudson Crozier, "California drops charges against anti-Planned Parenthood activist," Washington Examiner, September 24, 2026.
- Leandra Wells, "CA Pro-Life Activist Faces Prison Over 14-Second Instagram Video," California Family Council, May 27, 2026.
- Life Legal Defense Foundation, "Anastasia Was Arrested – Here's What You Should Know," Life Legal, December 20, 2025.
- Life Legal Defense Foundation, "Life Legal Announces Major Development in Anastasia Rogers Case," Christian Newswire, June 23, 2026.
- Charlotte Lozier Institute, "Pregnancy Centers Provided Over $452 Million in Services and Goods to Families," Charlotte Lozier Institute, November 17, 2025.
- Kurt Jensen, "DOJ report accuses Biden administration of 'weaponizing' prosecutions of pro-life activists," OSV News, April 15, 2026.
