Last week, I had the privilege of interviewing Walter Hoye, an Oakland pastor who refused a judge’s offer of probation and went to jail instead. Hoye, a 52-year-old Missionary Baptist pastor and MBA, told me, “The judge was essentially asking me to stop trying to help men and women outside an abortion clinic, and I just would not voluntarily give up my First Amendment rights.”

Hoye reported to the Santa Rita jail on March 20. Many of his fellow prisoners were drug dealers whose highest aspiration in life was to stay out of jail. From the moment they learned Hoye didn’t have to be there, that he’d chosen jail over probation because of his beliefs, Hoye was in constant demand.

One morning at about 2:30 a.m., a good-looking young man named Terrell approached Hoye’s bunk and asked what actually goes on during an abortion. Using his fingers to simulate a woman’s legs spreading, Hoye showed Terrell how the abortionist inserts a vacuum aspirator and sucks out the developing child.

Terrell, 18, told Hoye he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant and that she had aborted. “She made the decision,” he said. “It was her choice.”

“Yes, I know that, but what did you do?” Hoye replied. “Did you offer to marry her?”

Terrell shook his head. “No, I didn’t.”

“Did you offer to help her raise the child?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Did you tell her that you love her and that you were going to go the distance with her as a man should, even if she decided to give the child up for adoption?”

“No, no, I didn’t,” Terrell said, his eyes filling with tears. “I never knew. No one ever told me what an abortion is. No one ever made it plain.”

Check out the rest of the story here.