Last week's pardons of 23 pro-life activists is great news. But it’s a tragedy that it was necessary and just highlights the need to repeal the FACE Act, U.S. House Republican Chip Roy said on Washington Watch Friday. President Donald Trump signed the pardons Thursday afternoon, saying it was a “great honor” to do so for people “who should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people.”
Indeed they are. One of the pardons was extended to 89-year-old Eva Edl, a well-known pro-life activist and concentration camp survivor who fled Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe. She was prosecuted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and found guilty for participating in demonstrations near abortion clinics in Michigan in 2020 and Tennessee in 2021.
It’s unclear if Edl’s prison term had actually begun. That wasn’t the case for Laura Handy, who was jailed for 57 months – almost five years. Her progressive views in most politics didn’t save her because in this area she’s pro-life.
“She didn’t agree with you and me on most issues, but she’s pro-life, an avowed progressive,” Roy told show host Jody Hice.
“This is a great victory, not just for life but for at least a pause in weaponized government,” Roy continued. “You know what they were doing here: This is the same stuff they were doing on Jan. 6. They were using the law as a political sword, and that takes the blindfold of Lady Justice. It kills the rule of law, and President Trump is restoring the rule of Law.”
The FACE Act prohibits the use of physical force, threats of physical force, or physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone obtaining abortion services. But the FACE Act is broader than that. It also prohibits intentional damage to churches and other places of worship.
Prosecutions averaged about 10 defendants per year under the Clinton administration, about two per year under the Bush administration and about 10 under Obama. Not all charges are prosecuted.
The Daily Caller reported last July that the Biden administration, in just over three years in office, had levied more than a quarter of all charges to fall under the FACE Act.
For pro-life pregnancy centers the Biden justice system was a reign of terror. Data shows that 97% of actions under the FACE Act have targeted pro-lifers, Roy said.
Since the Supreme Court returned control of abortion back to the states in the Dobbs decision in the summer of 2021, 91 attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers have been ignored by the DOJ, Roy explained.
Another rodeo for Roy and FACE Act
Roy first submitted legislation to repeal the FACE Act in 2023. He’s resubmitted it this month.
A repeal would mean pro-lifers in the future would not be subject to prosecution for their beliefs, and no churches would suffer should the FACE Act go away, Roy said.
“It is not being used in any meaningful way to protect against, for example, church arson. There's already other legislation on the books that would deal with that. This was put on the books and was being used as a sword against pro-life individuals – and we should simply just take it off the books. That's it.”
The House should act on this quickly, he urged.
“We should move it through the Judiciary Committee [of which he is a member], and we should move it to the floor of the House,” Roy said. “We should make this change permanent so that no future president has to pardon individuals who were unfairly politically targeted and charged under the Department of Justice.”
Nothing is simple in overturning federal law. The FACE Act could be repealed with a simple majority vote in both chambers of Congress. However, it would likely face a filibuster in the Senate, and ending the filibuster would require 60 votes.
“Obviously it’s difficult when you’ve got 60 votes you need in the Senate, but I would love to pass it out of the House. I mean, no Republican should oppose it. We just passed the Born Alive [Survivors Protection] Act, and that was a good thing,” Roy noted.
Born Alive bill in Senate limbo
The Born Alive bill affirms legal protection for an infant born alive after a failed attempt to induce an abortion. It passed the House by a vote of 217-204 and is pending in the Senate. Senate Republicans tried to advance the bill last week but didn’t have the votes to end a filibuster.
“This is a bill that goes beyond life and goes to the weaponization of the Department of Justice for people exercising their political views and their pro-life views. We should send it to the Senate. We should force them to vote on it, and if it doesn't pass, then at least we know where they stand,” Roy said.
The vote to end the filibuster of the Senate version (S.6) of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act came up eight votes short (52-47). It was a strict party-line vote. One Republican senator, Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, did not vote.
