A former BGSU student facing a federal charge for the April 2023 spray painting of HerChoice, a pregnancy center in Bowling Green, Ohio, changed their plea to guilty and could face up to a year in prison.
20-year-old former BGSU student Soren Durant pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. They were initially charged under the FACE Act in July of 2023.
At the time of the incident, Durant was a BGSU student. University officials say they are no longer enrolled at BGSU.
“Defacing facilities that provide reproductive health services will not be tolerated in our society,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Durant’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 9, 2024 and they could face a maximum penalty of one year for the misdemeanor charge, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ also says a federal Magistrate Judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
“As reflected by today’s guilty plea, the United States will enforce federal laws that protect uninterrupted access to all clinics providing reproductive health services, whether they provide women with options that include abortion care or whether they solely encourage women to consider non-abortion alternatives,” said U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko for the Northern District of Ohio. “Here, the vandalized clinic did not provide abortion care, but that did not give the defendant license to deface the clinic’s property in protest, violating federal law in the process.”
