REDSTATE | Published January 26, 2025
Citing President Trump’s executive order Ending The Weaponization Of The Federal Government, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice ordered all federal prosecution under the Free Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act be dropped immediately. “[F]uture abortion-related FACE Act prosecutions and civil actions will be permitted only in extraordinary circumstances, or in cases presenting significant aggravating factors, such as death, serious bodily harm, or serious property damage.” In addition to invoking a new set of rules, the memo titled “FACE ACT CHARGING POLICY” orders a moratorium on any future FACE Act prosecutions without the permission of the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.
This is an incredible volte-face by a Justice Department that only a month ago was happily slamming pro-life activists with felony convictions and prison time for minor infractions of the FACE Act. According to reports, the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged approximately 60 individuals with FACE Act violations, a sharp rise compared to fewer than 100 cases in the law’s first 26 years. Only five of these prosecutions were directed against pro-abortion terrorists and groups. As the memo states: “This is not the even-handed administration of justice.” In fact, you can trace a path of increasingly bizarre and frenetic prosecutions from the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe vs. Wade.
This follows up on President Trump’s pardon of 23 pro-life activists Thursday; see BREAKING: Bevelyn Beatty Williams, 22 Other Pro-Life Activists Pardoned in Thursday EO Signing – RedState.
The FACE Act is a horrible law that was designed to criminalize peaceful protest by the unwary. Under Biden and a spiteful Merrick Garland, the weaponization of this law hit its peak. It became a tool for intimidating pro-lifers by sending FBI SWAT Teams to their homes at 6 a.m. For the time being, Trump has taken this tool out of the “resistance” toolbox. Hopefully, this session of Congress will see this law repealed or heavily amended.
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SOURCE: www.redstate.com
RELATED: Justice Department curtails prosecutions for blocking access to reproductive health centers
President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order relating to clemency for anti-abortion protesters as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
AP NEWS | Published January 26, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s new Justice Department leadership issued an order Friday to curtail prosecutions against people accused of blocking access to abortion clinics and reproductive health centers, calling the cases an example of the “weaponization” of law enforcement.
Prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act or “FACE Act” will now be permitted only in “extraordinary circumstances” or in cases presenting ”significant aggravating factors,” attorney general chief of staff Chad Mizelle said in a memo sent to the head of the department’s Civil Rights Division.
Mizelle also ordered the immediate dismissal of three FACE Act cases related to 2021 blockades of clinics in Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The memo signals a sharp departure from Justice Department under the Biden administration, which brought cases involving dozens of defendants accused of violating the law. The act prohibits physically obstructing or using the threat of force to intimidate or interfere with a person seeking reproductive health services, and prohibits damaging property at abortion clinics and other centers.
The legal group Thomas More Society, which represents many of the defendants, called the move a “huge moment in the fight against FACE.”
“In each of these three FACE Act cases, Thomas More Society attorneys were representing several brave and peaceful pro-life defendants — who can now breathe easy without the heavy burden of federal prosecutors on their backs,” the group said Friday.
The announcement comes hours after Trump vowed to support tens of thousands of anti-abortion protesters at Friday’s March for Life, declaring, “We will again stand proudly for families and for life” in a prerecorded address. A day earlier, Trump pardoned several anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances in violation of the FACE Act, which is designed to protect abortion clinics from obstruction and threats.
“President Donald Trump campaigned on the promise of ending the weaponization of the federal government and has recently directed all federal departments and agencies to identify and correct the past weaponization of law enforcement,” Mizelle wrote in the memo obtained by The Associated Press.
“To many Americans, prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (‘FACE Act’) have been the prototypical example of this weaponization. And with good reason,” he wrote.
Mizelle, who was brought on to serve as chief of staff to Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, said “more than 100 crisis pregnancy centers, pro-life organizations, and churches were attacked in the immediate aftermath” of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. Yet, nearly all of the prosecutions under the FACE Act have been against anti-abortion protesters, he wrote.
“That is not the even-handed administration of justice,” he wrote.
Vice President JD Vance, who spoke to the crowd at the March for Life in person, celebrated pardons for FACE Act defendants and called Trump “the most pro-life American president of our lifetimes.”
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SOURCE: www.apnews.com
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