Clinton-era law ‘weaponized’ by Biden against pro-lifers must go, Pence group urges House GOP

Former Vice President Mike Pence's nonprofit conservative coalition, Americans Advancing Freedom (AAF), is urging House Republicans to 'end the weaponization' of a Clinton-era law that they say unfairly targets pro-life activists.

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act was signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton in May 1994. The FACE Act made it a federal crime to use force, threats or obstruction to interfere with individuals seeking or providing abortion services, which includes blocking access to clinics, threatening or using violence against patients or clinic workers, and damaging abortion-related property.

In one of his first actions since taking office, President Donald Trump pardoned nearly two dozen pro-life activists who were serving multiyear sentences for participating in 2020 pro-life demonstrations at abortion clinics. Three of those pardoned were elderly. The Biden administration's Department of Justice (DOJ) had charged them with violating the FACE Act. Trump said during the pardons that the advocates 'should not have been prosecuted.'

'Congress must do its part to support President Trump’s effort to end the weaponization of government by repealing the FACE Act in its entirety,' reads the AAF memo, sent to Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday afternoon. 'There’s no question that the Biden Administration weaponized the FACE Act against pro-life Americans.'

'During the Biden Administration, pro-life Americans faced early morning SWAT team raids, unjust prison sentences, and alleged mistreatment while in custody,' the memo continues.

Last month, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight held a hearing, 'Entering the Golden Age: Ending the Weaponization of the Justice Department,' where Peter Breen, the executive vice president and head of litigation at the Christian nonprofit law firm Thomas More Society, testified that one of his clients was subject to such SWAT raids and a lengthy prison sentence.

'The Biden DOJ engaged in a systematic campaign to abuse the power of the federal government against pro-life advocates, while that same DOJ ignored hundreds of acts of vandalism and violence against pro-life churches, pregnancy help centers, and other advocates,' Breen said.

While the tide is turning in a different direction from the previous administration's pro-abortion agenda, conservative lawmakers are now looking at the FACE Act as the next step in the pro-life movement. In January, Trump also revoked two previous executive orders from the Biden administration that expanded abortion services. The new order reaffirms the policy established by the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal taxpayer dollars for elective abortions.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, re-introduced legislation in January around the same time to repeal the law. 

Roy's office presented data indicating that 97% of FACE Act prosecutions between 1994 and 2024 targeted pro-life individuals. He is supported in this effort by 32 co-sponsors in the House, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, introduced companion legislation in the Senate.

In 2023, several media outlets reported that under the Biden administration, the DOJ initiated at least 15 criminal cases under the FACE Act involving approximately 46 pro-life defendants since January 2021, with victims in all but one case being abortion-rights supporters.