When a law can be misused to put grandmothers and grandfathers in jail for a prayerful sit-in protest while ignoring pro-abortion arsonists, Congress should move to restore equal justice by taking that law permanently off the books.
Legislation that would repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act recently passed the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 13-10 as Republicans cited the law’s politically motivated enforcement against pro-life Americans.
The FACE Act Repeal Act, introduced in the House by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and in the Senate by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, aims to dismantle a federal statute that has, in practice, been weaponized against peaceful pro-life protestors.
Originally passed in 1994 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton, the FACE Act was intended to stop blockades of abortion clinics by pro-life activists. However, churches and pro-life pregnancy centers were added to the bill ostensibly to offer equal protection. In fact, 97 percent of FACE Act charges since its enactment have been brought against pro-life individuals.
Roy and Lee have twice before introduced legislation to repeal the FACE Act, claiming the law has been used as a political weapon to target pro-lifers. After a long wait, the bill was finally taken up in the Judiciary Committee in early June.
Much of the debate fell along party lines as Republicans cited the Biden administration’s weaponization of the law against pro-life activists.
Roy noted that 92 percent of FACE Act charges brought by the Biden administration were against pro-life protesters. Those protests were peaceful and, if the FACE Act didn’t apply, the worst crime that protesters would have committed was trespassing.
At the same time, though, there were hundreds of attacks on pro-life pregnancy resource centers and churches by pro-abortion advocates after the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. While these attacks involved firebombings, arson, terroristic threats, vandalism, assault, and more, the Biden administration brought less than 10 FACE Act charges against pro-abortion activists, and they received much lighter sentences than the peaceful pro-life protestors.
Roy said that, in just four years, the Biden administration brought almost 25 percent of all FACE Act charges filed against pro-life protesters in the 30 years that the law has been on the books.
He argued that while the Trump administration is moving to end the weaponization of the FACE Act against pro-life activists, he is concerned about overcriminalization and the federalization of such issues.
Roy said that the Biden administration showed how easy it is to weaponize the FACE Act as it directly called for the increased enforcement of the FACE Act due to the Supreme Court’s decision.
Critically, the Biden administration did more than increase its targeting of pro-life protesters under the FACE Act, which carries a maximum one-year prison sentence. At the suggestion of Department of Justice trial attorney Sanjay Patel, the DOJ began bringing “conspiracy against rights” charges against pro-life protesters, which elevated their “crimes” to a felony and the possibility of spending up to 10 years in prison.
This resulted in lengthy prison sentences for peaceful protesters,.
Roy specifically noted the cases of Lauren Handy, Paulette Harlow, Mark Houck, Paul Vaughn, and Eva Edl.
Lauren Handy, a progressive activist, was sentenced to 57 months in prison. She was initially arrested after calling the local police to report her discovery of five aborted fetuses who appeared to have been killed in violation of federal law. On arriving, the FBI instead took Handy into custody and charged her under the FACE Act for a protest that she had participated in 18 months earlier.
Harlow, who Roy characterized as as “an ailing grandmother,” was 76 years old at the time of her sentencing; Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly put her in jail for 24 months, followed by 36 months of supervised release, for the act of praying inside an abortion clinic.
Houck’s alleged violation came after an abortion escort screamed obscenities in the face of Houck’s 12-year-old son. Houck shoved the abortion escort to the ground. Local police did not pursue any charges, but Houck was later arrested by a SWAT team of around 15 to 20 FBI agents, who showed up in the early morning hours with guns drawn to arrest Houck for a supposed violation of the FACE Act. The DOJ sought FACE Act and conspiracy charges that could have resulted in 11 years in prison for Houck, but a jury acquitted him on all charges.
Vaughn was also arrested for a peaceful sit-in protest while singing hymns and praying. As they did with Houck, a SWAT team arrived early one morning to arrest Vaughn in front of his children. Vaughn was convicted of conspiracy charges and sentenced to three years of supervised release.
Edl, an 89-year-old survivor of a communist concentration camp, was charged for her participation in two peaceful sit-in protests in Tennessee and Michigan and was sentenced to three years of probation for the Tennessee protest.
After his election, President Donald Trump quickly pardoned 23 pro-life protesters, including those listed above.
Roy told the Daily Signal that while President Trump “rightfully pardoned FACE Act defendants unfairly prosecuted under President Biden. Congress must bring this bill to the floor and send it to the president’s desk, ensuring that no future administration can weaponize this law against pro-lifers ever again.”
He continued, “No American should have the heavy hand of the federal government come down on them simply because they’re speaking out for — or against — life, regardless of who is in control of the executive branch.”
At the hearing, Roy noted that repealing the FACE Act does nothing to undermine enforcement of criminal laws against violence or to hinder state and local authorities from enforcing their laws.
While most Republicans favored approving the bill, Democrats claimed, quite absurdly, that Republicans only wanted to repeal the FACE Act to increase violence against abortion clinics and the women who utilize their services.
Rep. Eric Swalwell said that “the only people in America who are asking for this legislation to be repealed are terrorists,” an untrue and slanderous statement that was reposted by the National Abortion Federation.
The FACE Act is the epitome of how a weaponized law is used to achieve two-tiered justice and advance a government-approved narrative.
If standing for life and peacefully praying outside abortion clinics makes pro-lifers “terrorists,” then the definition of justice in this country is broken.
As Roy noted, the FACE Act does nothing to actually deter violence. There are already criminal statutes against violent acts and trespassing.
The FACE Act only serves as a bludgeon that can be used against some protesters based solely on having the “wrong” political or religious views.
As stated earlier, the FACE Act has been used almost exclusively against pro-life protesters, almost all of them peaceful. Meanwhile, the destructive violence and threats against churches and pro-life clinics were almost completely ignored.
Any law that puts grandmothers and grandfathers in jail for a sit-in protest but allows pro-abortion arsonists to walk free isn’t a rational law.
While getting this bill through Congress will be difficult, it is important that legislators try to repeal the FACE Act. When a law has been weaponized like the FACE Act has, Congress has a responsibility to restore equal justice by permanently removing that law from the books and ensuring it can never be misused again.
We invite all those who care about the sanctity of life and the right of pro-lifers to speak truth to join us in praying that God would work to sway the hearts and minds of all members of Congress as this bill works itself through the legislative process in the months ahead.
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