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WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Jailed pro-lifer Jean Marshall, 74, has written to Congress, begging the head of the Human Rights Committee to intervene with the pro-abortion judge who put her behind bars for a peaceful pro-life rescue to allow her an urgently needed hip surgery.
READ: EXCLUSIVE: Elderly jailed pro-lifer denied urgent medical treatment for ‘excruciating’ hip pain
In a letter addressed to Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and obtained by LifeSiteNews, Marshall, who is a registered nurse, said that just a month before her trial last fall, she was admitted to the hospital “for excruciating pain in my hip and an inability to walk.” Despite a scheduled surgery and medical information from the doctor, the pro-abortion Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly refused any accommodations for Marshall to undergo the needed surgery.
Since then, her condition has only worsened, with her right leg feeling numb and her right knee unable to bend, forcing her to drag her right leg when she walks. With other medical complications such as reflux exacerbating her condition and being unable to see needed medical professionals, she told Smith, “I am concerned about my condition because I am unable to see an ENT doctor after waiting two months, and because if I did choke, there are no emergency buttons to push in my cell in which I am now locked down for 20 hours a day.”
“I am afraid to take an anti-inflammatory drug for pain due to the reflux, and today my right knee is stiff, preventing me from bending it, and so I just drag my right leg as I walk,” she wrote.
Marshall also said that after coming down with pneumonia due to the extreme cold of her cell last fall, she had to wait three weeks before being properly diagnosed.
“I am a retired RN going on age 75 and I need Judge Kollar-Kotelly to send me home, in whatever capacity,” she begged.
WATCH: BREAKING | Biden DOJ Accused of Brutal Treatment of Jailed Pro-Lifer — Prolonged Solitary, Shackles
The withholding of needed medical care for an elderly woman in prison runs contrary not only to basic human rights ethics but also the international standards set forth in the Nelson Mandela Rules.
The U.N. document on international rules for the humane treatment of prisoners, titled United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), states that every prisoner must receive needed medical care and that medical decisions made by a doctor “may not be overruled or ignored by non-medical prison staff.”
Marshall also expressed her desire to once again be able to attend Mass regularly. “I also need to be able to go to church, along with my sister, who has been unable to go since she was placed on house arrest after her conviction and even before her trial.”
Both Jean Marshall and her sister, Paulette Harlow, are devout Catholics. When Harlow was convicted last fall, at the insistence of Biden DOJ prosecutor Sanjay Patel, Kollar-Kotelly denied Harlow’s request to be allowed to attend Mass while under house arrest, only allowing her to make visits to the doctor.
Jean Marshall shared with LifeSiteNews a letter in which she testified, “We went to the abortion killing place in peaceful response to Proverbs 24:11, to ‘rescue those being dragged to their death.’ We went as if the life of the Preborn Christ Child was at stake because our Lord said, ‘Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for Me’ (Matthew 25:40).”
In a letter to her fellow Third Order Franciscans, Marshall explained her special love for the unborn, declaring, “As Catholics we know that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is the Son of God and the Word of God and that the Word was made flesh when He became the preborn Christ Child in Mary’s tabernacle womb.”
READ: Pro-life prisoner took part in DC rescue ‘as if the life of the Preborn Christ Child was at stake’
Letter from Jean Marshall to Congressman Chris Smith
Dear Representative Smith,
My name is Jean Marshall, and I am one of the nine codefendants convicted in United States v. Handy et al., for being in civil disobedience of the F.A.C.E. Act on Oct. 22, 2020. After our conviction on Sept. 15, 2023, I was put in jail at the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center in Alexandria Virginia to await sentencing on May 15, 2024.
In August of 2023, a month before my trial, I was brought by ambulance to the nearest hospital (South Shore Hospital in South Weymouth, MA) for excruciating pain in my hip and an inability to walk. I was admitted and treated for three days with intravenous anti-inflammatory drugs and pain killers and sent home. This is not the first episode but the third which sent me to the hospital via ambulance in severe pain. I saw an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Talmo of New England Baptist Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts who evaluated me for osteoarthritis in both hips and scheduled me for right hip surgery in Oct. 2023. My lawyer gave my judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly this information so that I could go home before sentencing in order to keep my scheduled surgery date. I was not allowed to return home despite not being a flight risk.
At the onset of my incarceration in a cold cell I developed a painful pneumonia, which was finally diagnosed after three weeks, and was given ibuprofen to treat the pain.
Later I requested ibuprofen for my osteoarthritis because I began to limp and my right leg was going numb.
In February, I had to see the jail doctor because I coughed up foam after my lawyer’s visit, though I had never done this before, and quickly had a constant sensation that something was stuck in my esophagus.
I had seen an ENT (ear nose and throat) specialist twenty years earlier when I was diagnosed with esophageal reflux or GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease) which my father died from due to acid reflux scarring in his esophagus causing him to choke (aspirate) on food when he ate.
The doctor in jail told me to avoid NSAIDS (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, like ibuprofen due to my reflux and began me on a drug for GERD which did not help. I am concerned about my condition because I am unable to see an ENT doctor after waiting two months, and because if I did choke there are no emergency buttons to push in my cell in which I am now locked down for 20 hours a day.
I am afraid to take an anti-inflammatory drug for pain due to the reflux, and today my right knee is stiff, preventing me from bending it, and so I just drag my right leg as I walk. I am a retired RN going on age 75 and I need Judge Kollar-Kotelly to send me home, in whatever capacity, (with a bracelet monitor if she wishes) or else on house arrest without a monitor so that I can receive medical treatment. I also need to be able to go to church, along with my sister who has been unable to go since she was placed on house arrest after her conviction and even before her trial.
My orthopedic surgeon will send you a letter to verify the osteoarthritis in both hips, right hip is worse than the left, requiring surgery.
Jean Marshall
LifeSiteNews’ extensive coverage of the D.C. FACE Act trials can be found here.
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