Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
FIRST ON FOX: More than 20 House Republicans are supporting a bill that would repeal the law used by former President Biden’s administration to prosecute dozens of pro-life activists.
Rep. Chip Roy, D-Texas, is leading the effort to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Fees Act, or FACE Act, which Republicans argue has been selectively invoked to attack pro-lifers who have protested outside abortion clinics. He shared data his office obtained from the Department of Justice under Attorney General Merrick Garland that showed 97 percent of FACE Act prosecutions in the past 20 years were against abortion opponents.
“Americans have just spent the last four years being targeted by an armed justice system. The FACE Act was one of the primary weapons of abuse: used to politically attack, arrest and imprison North- pro-life Americans to speak up and advocate for life,” Roy said in a statement.
TRUMP ASKS TO PARDON 21 PROVIDA PROTESTERS PUSHED BY BIDEN’S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
President-elect Trump was urged by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, to sign a bill repealing a law used by the Biden administration to prosecute pro-life activists. (AP Photo/Getty Images)
“Now that we have a Republican trifecta in the House, Senate and White House, Congress should move quickly to repeal this law and ensure that no future president can weaponize it against pro-lifers ever again.”
The FACE Law makes it a federal crime to use “threats of force, obstruction, or damage to property intended to interfere with reproductive health services.” The 1994 law has been used by President Biden’s Justice Department to aggressively prosecute pro-life activists since the fall of Roe v. Wade, a landmark abortion rights case, in June 2022.
It has rarely been used against those who have attacked pro-life organizations and pregnancy resource centers. According to Roy’s office, there have been at least 90 such attacks since May 2022, when the draft of the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. The Biden administration was leaked to the public prosecuting only five people for attacks on pro-life facilities, while many incidents targeting Catholic churches and pro-life centers were never prosecuted.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is seen outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Instead, the FACE Act prosecutions of pro-life activists like Mark Houck, who was later acquitted, inflamed the right and led to accusations that Biden’s DOJ was both zealous and politically biased against opponents of the ‘abortion. A SWAT team of about 25 people arrested Houck, a Catholic father of seven, in front of his children at his home in Pennsylvania in October 2021.
Conservative groups have asked the president donald trump to pardon at least 21 other pro-life activists who had demonstrated at abortion facilities.
Abortion rights activists gather at the Washington Monument before a march to the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC on May 14, 2022. (JOSE LUIS MAGANA/AFP via Getty Images)
Ten defendants convicted of violating the FACE Act received prison sentences ranging from 10 months to 57 months for their involvement in a 2020 “lockdown” of an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C. In May, Paulette Harlow , aged 75, was issued. a sentence of 2 years in prisonwhile Lauren Handy, 30, was sentenced to almost five years in prison.
Trump has criticized the Biden administration for prosecuting these pro-life protesters and has indicated he would consider granting them pardons.
Tom McClusky, director of government affairs for CatholicVote, called the pro-life prosecutions under Biden “unfair” and praised Roy for introducing the repeal bill.
“Now that we have a president who will sign the bill into law, it’s time to pass Rep. Chip Roy’s repeal of the FACE Act,” McClusky said in a statement.
Four more pro-life protesters face jail time after being convicted of defying the law
A pro-life protester stands with his sign in front of the EMW Women’s Surgical Center, an abortion clinic, on May 8, 2021, in Louisville, Kentucky. ((Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images))
Students for Life Action also called on Congress to repeal the FACE Act, calling the law “a weapon that the Department of Justice must use against those who peacefully protest the human rights abuses of our day: abortion.” .
“By ignoring violent pro-abortion protesters to focus on peaceful pro-life prayer warriors, the hypocrisy could not be clearer. The FACE Act represents viewpoint discrimination, as punishments are overcome because of the beliefs of the government’s goals. This abuse of pro-abortion taxation must end,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action and Students for Life of America.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Roy expressed his hope that Congress and the administration will work quickly to move his bill forward and pardon those he believes were treated unfairly.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“While President Trump and his team are already working quickly to reverse the damage of J6’s political prosecutions and persecutions through pardons and commutations, I am hopeful that the individuals subject to the FACE Act will receive similar relief,” he said. Roy said. “But what’s important is that we in Congress must do our part to eliminate gun laws, including the FACE Act.”
“No more excuses, let’s do it.”
Fox News Digital’s Kristine Parks contributed to this report.
