Pro-life activists convicted of basically protesting abortion are pardoned by President Trump

 Trump pardons 23 pro-life activists convicted of FACE Act violations

written by Kurt Jensen 

Activists Lauren Handy, left, and Terrisa Bukovinac chant slogans against legal abortion outside the Supreme Court in Washington Dec. 10, 2021. Handy, a Catholic pro-life activist, was among those activists sentenced to prison for committing FACE Act violations against abortion clinic that were pardoned by President Donald Trump Jan. 23, 2025. (OSV News photo/Sarah Silbiger, Reuters)

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — On the eve of the national March for Life rally in Washington, President Donald Trump announced Jan. 23 he was issuing pardons for 23 protesters arrested for violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinics (FACE) Act.

Trump signed the pardons in the Oval Office.

“They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people,” he told reporters. “This is a great honor to sign this.”

The Thomas More Society, the Chicago-based public interest law firm, had earlier in January announced it had submitted formal requests to pardon 21 pro-life activists convicted under the FACE Act. They included Joan Bell, Coleman Boyd, Joel Curry, Jonathan Darnel, Eva Edl, Chester Gallagher, William Goodman, Dennis Green, Lauren Handy, Paulette Harlow, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall, Father Fidelis Moscinski, Justin Phillips, Paul Place, Paul Vaughn, Bevelyn Beatty Williams, Calvin Zastrow, Eva Zastrow, and James Zastrow.

The two other convicted pro-life activists pardoned by Trump are Herb Geraghty of Pennsylvania and Jay Smith of New York.

Gratitude for the pardons

Many are still incarcerated. Lauren Handy, a Catholic convicted for her participation in a 2020 abortion clinic blockade in Washington, has been serving the longest sentence: 57 months.

According to a list maintained by Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, Handy is currently in a federal prison in Florida. Idoni is incarcerated in Florida; Marshall and Goodman in Connecticut; Darnel and Calvin Zastrow in Illinois; Hinshaw in Massachusetts; Geraghty in Pennsylvania; Calvin Zastrow in Illinois; and Williams, who was arrested for protesting outside an abortion clinic in New York City, in Alabama.

“Today, freedom rings in our great nation,” said Steve Crampton, senior counsel for the Thomas More Society. “The heroic peaceful pro-lifers unjustly imprisoned by Biden’s Justice Department will now be freed and able to return home to their families, eat a family meal, and enjoy the freedom that should have never been taken from them in the first place.”

Father Fidelis, a member of the Franciscan Fathers of the Renewal, issued his own statement expressing gratitude to President Trump for the pardons.

“The pardons corrected the injustice of our prosecutions and incarceration but the daily and horrific injustice of abortion continues,” he said. “And it must be stopped.”

At the same time, the Catholic priest leveled criticism at the president over his position that the states should decide abortion policy.

“Although it might be politically expedient to say that each state should make its own laws about abortion, this position is morally incoherent,” he said. “We invite President Trump to abandon this incoherence and show himself to be a president of all Americans — born and unborn.”

FBI says we don't target pro-lifers...then, again...

 

FBI director denies targeting pro-life activists

FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on July 24, 2024, in Washington, D.C. | Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

By Peter Pinedo

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 25, 2024 / 14:50 pm

FBI Director Christopher Wray denied in his testimony to Congress on Wednesday that the bureau under the Biden administration has been targeting pro-life activists.

Wray claimed while testifying to the House Judiciary Committee that the bureau has primarily focused its attention on investigating pro-abortion extremists rather than pro-life activists since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

This comes just months after several pro-life advocates, including several elderly individuals, were sentenced to years in prison for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act during a “rescue” attempt at a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic in 2020.

The FACE Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, imposes criminal penalties on individuals convicted of “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct” that interferes with access to abortion clinics, places of worship, and pregnancy centers.

Several House and Senate Republicans, including Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, have been calling for the FACE Act to be repealed because they say it is being unequally applied to target pro-life advocates.

Wray’s claim was in response to a question raised by Roy about whether the FBI was justified in its use of the FACE Act to sentence Paulette Harlow, a 75-year-old grandmother with a serious medical condition.

Harlow was sentenced to two years in prison for her involvement in the 2020 rescue.

“Do you think it is appropriate for a 75-year-old woman who was praying at a clinic in D.C. to be put in prison for two years for that activity?” Roy asked.

The FBI director claimed that he was “not familiar with this specific case” and said he didn’t want to weigh in without knowing all the facts.

“What I can tell you,” Wray said, “is that when it comes to FACE Act enforcement and abortion-related violent extremism, I think one of the things that gets lost, and I appreciate the opportunity to clarify it, is that really since the Dobbs decision actually more of our abortion-related violent extremism investigations have focused on violence against pro-life facilities as opposed to the other way around.”

Roy responded that the data shared with his office contradicts Wray’s claim and that the FBI has yet to respond to his request for additional data.

Roy’s office shared data obtained from the Department of Justice with CNA on Thursday. The data shows a significant increase in FACE Act indictments against pro-life activists starting in 2022. According to the data shared with CNA, 26 pro-life advocates were sentenced under the FACE Act in 2022 compared with just two in the previous year.

In comparison, only four pro-abortion activists have been charged with violating the FACE Act since 2022, despite numerous attacks against pro-life groups and pregnancy centers after Roe’s overturn.

In an interview with Fox News after the Wednesday hearing, Roy decried the FBI for not being able to stop the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump, saying: “Meanwhile they put a 75-year-old woman in prison for two years because she was praying at an abortion clinic. Their priorities are all out of whack.”

Roy asked: “What on earth does the FBI actually do besides putting a 75-year-old grandmother in prison?

The Department of Justice did not reply to CNA’s request for comment.

Vandalism attacks continue to mount against pro-life pregnancy centers

 

Abortion activists smash windows at Minnesota pregnancy clinic that provides free diapers

By Joe Bukuras

Boston, Mass., Mar 6, 2023 / 14:20 pm

Vandals smashed the windows of a pro-life pregnancy center in Minneapolis and spray-painted it with graffiti in the middle of the night March 3, in the latest incident in a wave of attacks against crisis pregnancy centers.

“It’s just disheartening,” Tammy Kocher, executive director of New Life Family Services, which oversees the First Care clinic, told CNA Monday.

“Why do you want to hurt single moms and families that are struggling, who need resources?” she asked of those responsible for the attack.

Video surveillance shows two masked individuals at about 1 a.m. tagging the clinic with graffiti and breaking the windows with a hammer, she said.

Among other statements, the graffiti on the clinic said “If abortions arn’t safe neither r u” and “Jane was here.” 

A group called Jane’s Revenge has claimed responsibility for similar attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers in a wave of attacks since Roe v. Wade was overturned. 

Kocher said the center has yet to estimate the damage but expect it will exceed $20,000.

“I hope that they are held accountable for the damage they’ve done to our center and or any other places they’ve done that to,” she said. “They should be prosecuted.”

Local police told the clinic staff that the attack is a “federal hate crime” and falls under the FACE Act, which is a 1993 federal law that prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.” 

The act’s protections include pro-life pregnancy centers and places of worship as well. However, the Biden administration has almost exclusively used the act to target pro-lifers.

Police referred the vandalism to the Department of Justice, Kocher said.

The clinic is one of five that New Life Family Services oversees. The clinics provide baby clothes, car seats, strollers, and 100,000 diapers to families in need each year. The clinic has licensed social workers who guide more than 2,000 women through a variety of challenges including homelessness and domestic violence.

Kocher said that her clinic provides all its services to women and families for free. The clinic is situated in a low-income neighborhood in Minneapolis where there is a high level of poverty, she said.

“Every woman deserves to feel cared for and supported through an unexpected pregnancy. And so we provide professional holistic support,” she said.

Kocher called the attack “strange timing,” as Minnesota has recently taken steps to lessen restrictions on abortion, legalizing it “up to birth,” she said.

In January, a Minnesota bill titled the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act, enshrined a constitutional right to “reproductive freedom,” ensuring the right to abortion in Minnesota up to birth for any reason as well as the right to contraception and sterilization.

“There’s so much misinformation and false information put out about pregnancy centers that just simply aren’t true. And they’re especially not true of our centers,” Kocher said.

“Abortion is legal through birth now. So why do they feel the need to target pregnancy centers? I don’t understand,” she said.

the acquittal of Mark Houck marks another milestone Pro-Life victory

 

Pro-life advocates and lawmakers react to news of Mark Houck’s acquittal

By Tyler Arnold, Jonah McKeown

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 30, 2023 / 16:09 pm

Pro-life lawmakers and activists are celebrating after a jury acquitted pro-life activist Mark Houck Monday on federal charges stemming from an altercation with a volunteer escort outside a Planned Parenthood facility in Philadelphia. 

Although Houck, a Catholic father of seven, acknowledged he shoved the volunteer twice, he said he only did so because the person was harassing his 12-year-old son. Local law enforcement refused to file charges against him, but the Department of Justice (DOJ) dispatched a team of FBI agents to arrest him at gunpoint in front of his family.

He could have served up to 11 years in prison if he had been found guilty on two counts of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, better known as the FACE Act. 

Several lawmakers praised the legal victory but chastised the DOJ for filing charges in the first place. 

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, tweeted that the news “marks a win” for the pro-life community. He also alleged that the charges were brought to intimidate pro-life advocates.

“[President Joe] Biden’s DOJ raided Mark’s home — in front of his children — on sham charges. They treated Mark like a domestic terrorist because of his faith. This type of intimidation has no place in America.”

Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, echoed some of those concerns. 

“Mark Houck never should have been prosecuted, let alone treated like a terrorist in an early-morning FBI raid with a SWAT team,” Cotton tweeted. “[Attorney General] Merrick Garland should be ashamed for using [the] DOJ as a political weapon to target pro-life activists.”

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, also congratulated Houck on his legal victory and warned that this case demonstrates how politicized the DOJ has become. 

“Some folks might mistakenly interpret this as an embarrassing loss for the politicized DOJ, but that would be ignoring their modus operandi, which is to punish people by putting them and their families through this process,” Massie tweeted. “In any case, congrats to Mr. Houck for prevailing.”

Many pro-life activists also expressed excitement about the win along with concerns about the power of the DOJ. 

The pro-life group 40 Days for Life, which organizes peaceful protests outside abortion clinics, hailed the verdict as a “major win.” Shawn Carney, the founder of 40 Days for Life, called the case a “well-deserved embarrassment for the FBI and DOJ and an abuse of power by the Biden administration.”

“Being pro-life is not illegal,” Carney noted. 

Lila Rose, the founder and president of the pro-life group Live Action, also reacted to the verdict. 

“Pro-life father and sidewalk advocate Mark Houck has been found NOT GUILTY of violating the FACE Act,” Rose tweeted. “Last [fall] he was raided at gunpoint by the Biden FBI in front of his 7 children & faced up to 11 years in prison.”

Ryan Bomberger, a pro-life activist and speaker, called it “great news” that Biden’s Justice Department “fails to carry out its injustice.”

“Peaceful pro-life father, Mark Houck, is found NOT GUILTY of violating ridiculous #FACE Act,” Bomberger tweeted.