Father Stephen Imbarrato (Screenshot)

A Catholic priest was sentenced to a week in jail after being arrested in December for trespassing at an abortion clinic, even though he was offered the opportunity to be given to receive probation – if he would promise to violate his conscience.

Father Stephen Imbarrato of Priests for Life, along with two other pro-lifers Joan McKee and Julia Haag, went to Steven Brigham’s Capital Women's Services in Washington, D.C., in December as part of the Red Rose Rescue, which is “a campaign to enter abortion facility waiting rooms and distribute red roses while offering women words of encouragement not to abort their babies,” reports LifeSiteNews.

D.C. Superior Court Chief Judge Robert Morin found Imbarrato, Mckee and Haag guilty on Monday for trespassing on the private property of Steven Brigham’s Capital Women's Services. “The judge suggested that their punishment would consist of supervised probation and being barred from the abortion facility, conditions that Imbarrato declared he could not abide by,” according to LifeSiteNews.

In his final statement to the judge, Imbarrato “explained that as a Catholic priest he has the upmost respect for authority, but he will not accept an invalid ruling by a ‘corrupt and immoral government that sanctions, protects (through its courts), and funds the daily mass murder of thousands of innocent preborn babies,’” according to a Mercy Missions D.C. press release.

“When do the babies get their day in court? Today, they do! Judge, you will have to send me to jail!” Imbarrato said, leading the judge to sentence him to seven days in jail.

LifeSiteNews notes the abortion clinic’s checked past and run-ins with the law: