Capitol Police prepare to arrest Lauren Handy, third from left, of Anti-Choice Project D.C., and other antiabortion demonstrators, who participated in a “pray-in” outside the office of then-Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to protest a canceled House vote that would ban abortions after 20 weeks on March 25, 2015. (Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call)
Twenty-three antiabortion extremists convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) were pardoned by President Donald Trump on Thursday. The pardons place extremists responsible for invading and blockading reproductive healthcare clinics in dozens of states back on the street, inviting more violence and chaos against patients and abortion providers.
On Friday, the day of the antiabortion March for Life rally in D.C., Trump’s new Justice Department also issued an order stopping prosecutions of people blocking access to reproductive healthcare facilities. According to Justice Department chief of staff Chad Mizelle, prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act or FACE Act will now be allowed only in “extraordinary circumstances.” Mizelle also ordered the dismissal of three ongoing FACE Act cases related to attacks on clinics in Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Ohio in 2021 where antiabortion protestors threatened patients and blocked their access to the clinics.
While right-wing extremists refer to these criminal defendants as “peaceful pro-life Americans … deserving of full and unconditional pardons,” abortion advocates know them for their history as leaders of campaigns of terror and for orchestrating dangerous invasions of healthcare clinics in dozens of states. The 23 individuals whom Trump pardoned on Thursday had previously been convicted in historic federal prosecutions.
The pardons benefit defendants of dangerous clinic invasions, such as that at the 2020 Washington, D.C., Surgi-Clinic. Unlike the propaganda delivered by right-wing media outlets of the defendants as “peaceful protestors,” duVergne Gaines, director of the Feminist Majority Foundation’s National Clinic Access Project, says that footage of the 2020 clinic invasion “depicted women desperate for care and in medically fragile situations, including fainting in the hallway, being terrorized and traumatized by extremists.”
The anticipated move is a symbol of Trump’s genuflecting to the right, and right-wing antiabortion groups are continuing to beat the drum for Congress to abolish the FACE Act. The federal law, enacted in 1994, ”prohibits violent, threatening, damaging and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain or provide reproductive health services.”
The latest efforts to repeal the law are led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who reintroduced a bill to repeal the FACE Act on Tuesday, saying it has been used to weaponize the Department of Justice. On Thursday, Trump also put a freeze on all cases within the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
The pardons—which came three days into the Trump administration and just one day before the March for Life—fulfill a campaign promise Trump made to antiabortion groups during a speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition on the campaign trail in June. Several antiabortion groups, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Students for Life, the Thomas More Society and Americans United for Life, have been lobbying Trump to issue the pardons in public and through private channels.
The Thomas More Society is a well-funded Chicago conservative Roman Catholic public interest law firm engaged in culture war issues, including opposing gay marriage and the 2020 election results. Lawyers from the conservative organization sent a letter earlier this month congratulating the president on his election and asking for the release of “peaceful pro-life Americans, some of whom were unjustly imprisoned … by the Biden Administration.”
Trump called it “a great honor” to pardon people who “should not have been prosecuted.” Many of the defendants were serving lengthy prison sentences for orchestrating and carrying out clinic invasions that injured a nurse and terrorized both patients and healthcare providers.
Trump made an appearance on video at Friday’s March for Life, stating “We will again stand proudly for families and for life,” in a prerecorded address. JD Vance attended the march in person and celebrated Thursday’s pardons for FACE Act violators. He also called Trump “the most pro-life American president of our lifetimes.” At the march, members of the extremist groups Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) and Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, chanted, “We are clinic invaders and yours is next.”
This Tuesday, Trump shut down the HHS informational website on abortion access and reproductive rights. With the pardons, Trump appeased his antiabortion supporters, who were becoming increasingly frustrated in recent days that he did not issue the pardons on Day 1.
