The Trump Administration’s Department of Justice has instructed federal prosecutors to limit the enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act — the law that led to the imprisonment of numerous pro-life activists.
According to CBS News, Chad Mizele, the chief of staff to the attorney general, told prosecutors in a Friday memo to enforce the FACE Act only in “extraordinary circumstances” — such as when death, extreme bodily harm, or significant property damage occur during an act against a ‘reproductive health care’ facility, which includes abortion facilities and pregnancy resource centers. Future violations of the FACE Act will be handled by state or local law enforcement with exceptions for federal investigations in cases that include “significant aggravating factors.”
“Until further notice, no new abortion-related FACE Act actions — criminal or civil — will be permitted without authorization from the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division,” Mizelle wrote.
The FACE Act was first enacted in 1994 under then-President Bill Clinton. It “prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services … or other federal criminal statutes where arson, firearms, and threats were also used.”
The focus had long been on individuals who acted with violence, not on peaceful activists. However, that changed in early 2022 when Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was being heard by the Supreme Court and threatened to overturn Roe v. Wade. Suddenly, pro-lifers were being arrested in droves for activism that had taken place more than two years prior (much of which was not prosecuted by local authorities). These activists continued to face arrests and FBI raids for months after Roe was ultimately overturned in June 2022.
READ: President Trump pardons pro-lifers convicted of FACE Act violations under Biden administration
Congressman Chip Roy criticized the Biden-Harris DOJ, saying, “… nearly 92% of all Biden-Harris FACE Act cases were brought against pro-life demonstrators, despite over 285 churches and 94 pregnancy resource centers and pro-life groups being attacked and vandalized since May 2022.” Catholic Vote’s Violence Tracker now stands at 480 Catholic churches attacked since May 2022, many of which included spray-painted pro-abortion messaging.
Yet only a handful of pro-abortion protestors have been arrested.
“More than 100 crisis pregnancy centers, pro-life organizations, and churches were attacked in the immediate aftermath” of the Supreme Court’s decision, Mizelle wrote, arguing some of those cases went uncharged.
The Biden Administration DOJ would later admit to targeting pro-life activists through the FACE Act in response to the overturning of Roe. As reported by The Daily Signal, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in December of 2022 that Dobbs increased “the urgency” of the DOJ’s efforts to ‘enforce’ “the FACE Act, to ensure continued lawful access to reproductive services.”
All but two of the arrested pro-lifers who went to trial were found guilty of violating the FACE Act, Conspiracy Against Rights, or both, and many were sentenced to federal prison, with the longest sentence set at just under five years. On January 23, President Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists who were found guilty of violating the FACE ACT, saying, “They should not have been prosecuted.”
Tell President Trump, RFK, Jr., Elon, and Vivek:
Stop killing America’s future. Defund Planned Parenthood NOW!
