Chris Lange, FISM News
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Tuesday introduced legislation to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Roy is among several Republican lawmakers who have accused the Justice Department of abusing the FACE Act to prosecute pro-life advocates. The law, which was enacted in 1994, “prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services.”
Roy told the Daily Caller in a prepared statement that he introduced the legislation because Americans should not “live in fear” that they will be targeted by the U.S. government for their beliefs.
He went on to accuse the Biden administration of “brazenly weaponiz[ing] the FACE Act against normal, everyday Americans across the political spectrum, simply because they are pro-life.”
The Texas lawmaker argued that the law represents “an unconstitutional federal takeover of state police powers” and that “it must be repealed.”
THREE PRO-LIFE ACTIVISTS FACE LENGTHY SENTENCES AFTER ‘FELONY CONSPIRACY’ CONVICTIONS
Roy introduced the legislation days after a Washington, D.C., federal jury found three pro-life activists guilty of “felony conspiracy” to block access to a late-term abortion clinic during a 2020 demonstration. Each of the defendants faces up to 11 years in prison and fines of up to $350,000, according to a DOJ press release.
The defendants – Joan Bell, 74, of New Jersey; Jonathan Darnel, 41, of Virginia; and Jean Marshall, 73, of Massachusetts – were found guilty of conspiring “to prevent the clinic from providing, and patients from receiving, reproductive health services” in violation of the FACE Act.
The DOJ cited evidence showing that Marshall and Bell “forcefully entered the clinic” and used “their bodies, furniture, chains and ropes” to block two entrances. The Justice Department accused the three of using “a physical obstruction to injure, intimidate and interfere with the clinic’s employees and a patient” in the “invasion.”
Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee, immediately placed all three behind bars to await sentencing later this year.
Attorneys for the defendants denied the allegations, saying that their clients did not prevent anyone from entering the clinic and only kneeled, prayed, and disseminated pro-life literature at the site, according to reporting by Townhall.
Darnel told Catholic News Agency in a telephone interview on the eve of his arrest that the purpose of the demonstration was to save lives. He acknowledged that the abortion clinic, which advertises abortions up to “27-plus weeks of pregnancy,” was inoperable for roughly four hours during the sit-in protest.
“FACE is a crime, but it shouldn’t be a crime because abortion shouldn’t be tolerated.”
The DOJ made reference in its Sept. 15 release to the prior arrests and convictions of five additional pro-life demonstrators affiliated with The Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), all of whom were convicted last month for demonstrating at the same clinic. They have been incarcerated since August and are also awaiting sentencing.
PAAU, a leftwing pro-life group, condemned the latest convictions and called for the repeal of the FACE Act.
“This overreaching of power and authority by Biden’s DOJ is egregious and must be stopped,” PAAU Executive Director Caroline Taylor Smith said in a statement to Townhall.
“Nonviolent pro-life actions should not be a federal crime, and peaceful people with a desire to save lives should not be jailed for over a decade. Some of these Rescuers could be facing death by incarceration. We must repeal the FACE Act now!”
“2 women in their 70’s were convicted for ‘blocking’ an abortion clinic and now face up to 11 years in prison,” Libs of TikTok wrote in a post on X. “Meanwhile most BLM protestors who burned down buildings and destroyed our country for months had their charges dropped.”
ARBITRARY PROSECUTIONS
Conservative lawmakers and pro-life groups have accused the DOJ of aggressively and arbitrarily prosecuting pro-life demonstrators while appearing to ignore violent attacks on churches and pregnancy help centers by pro-abortion activists.
The Daily Signal recently noted that, while the FACE Act was designed to provide the same protections for pro-life organizations as it does for abortion clinics, it has been used almost exclusively by the Biden administration to prosecute pro-life demonstrators. The DOJ charged 26 pro-life advocates with FACE Act violations in 2022 alone, according to the outlet.
The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division wrote in a May 2023 update to its “Violence Against Healthcare Providers” web page that “The FACE Act…protects all patients, providers, and facilities that provide reproductive health services, including pro-life pregnancy counseling services and any other pregnancy support facility providing reproductive health care.”
GARLAND: ‘WE APPLY THE LAW EQUALLY’
Attorney General Merrick Garland previously denied that his Justice Department disproportionately targets pro-life activists with FACE Act violations in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Garland explained that “it is quite easy” to go after life-affirming demonstrators because they are frequently photographed in daylight, whereas pro-abortion activists carry out their attacks under cover of darkness.
“I will say you’re quite right, there are many more prosecutions with respect to the blocking of the … of the abortion centers but that is generally because they are … those actions are taken with photography at the time, during the daylight and seeing the person who did it is quite easy,” Garland said under questioning by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) of Utah. “Those who are attacking the pregnancy resources centers, which is a hard thing to do, are doing this at night in the dark,” he added.
Garland also asserted that “The FACE Act applies equally in both cases and we apply the law equally.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was one of several Republican lawmakers who confronted Garland about the FBI’s arrest of Pennsylvania pro-life demonstrator Mark Houck during a raid on his home that took place shortly before the March 1, 2023, hearing.
Cruz asked Garland why he chose to “send two dozen agents in body armor to arrest a sidewalk counselor who happens to be pro-life, but you don’t devote resources to prosecute people who are violently firebombing crisis pregnancy centers?”
“If you’re a violent criminal and you attack a crisis pregnancy center, that is not a priority in the Biden Department of Justice,” Cruz said.
Houck was acquitted of all charges and recently announced a run for Congress.
The Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRS) team released an October 2022 report identifying 135 attacks against pro-life organizations and supporters compared to six attacks on pro-abortion groups and supporters.
The report noted that the DOJ maintains a list of criminal prosecutions involving “violence against” reproductive healthcare providers going back to 2011. Virtually all of the names on that list are people with pro-life beliefs.
CPRS noted in its findings that “[T]he media has uncritically accepted pro-choice claims of violence without asking for a list of cases.”
FISM reported in March that the Heritage Foundation and Advancing American Freedom, the latter of which is backed by former Vice President Mike Pence, are suing the DOJ to compel its response to a Freedom of Information Act request for “records related to DOJ’s actions concerning pregnancy resource centers and the Department’s possible failure to provide pro-life organizations victimized by crime with equal justice under law.”