President Donald Trump issued pardons for 23 pro-life activists on Thursday 23 January 2024, fulfilling a promise he made during the presidential campaign.
Newsroom (01/24/2025 09:39, Gaudium Press) Trump signed the pardons on Thursday in the Oval Office of the White House on the day before the March for Life to be held in Washington, D.C., according to the Thomas More Society.
President Donald J. Trump granted pardons for 23 pro-life advocates who faced weaponized prosecutions brought against them by the Biden Department of Justice under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
Earlier this month, Thomas More Society attorneys submitted to the Trump administration formal requests for presidential pardons on behalf of 21 of those pro-life advocates who have been unjustly prosecuted, convicted, and in several cases, imprisoned, by the Biden DOJ. In their letter submitted to President Donald J. Trump, Thomas More Society attorneys urged “that these pro-life Americans are deserving of full and unconditional pardons.” The communicated pardon request package included 21 individual pardon requests, one for each pro-life advocate, outlining the specific facts of each case, their upstanding personal and moral character, and the reasons why President Trump should grant a presidential pardon.
During Biden’s four years in office, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brought charges against more than 30 people who took part in pro-life demonstrations under the FACE Act, which was legislation in the 1990s to increase penalties for people who obstruct access to abortion clinics or pregnancy resource centres.
Although the FACE Act’s higher sentences also apply to people who obstruct or damage pro-life pregnancy centres, Biden’s DOJ only brought charges in two cases regarding attacks on those facilities despite more than 100 incidents occurring under his tenure.
“While Biden’s prosecutors almost entirely ignored the firebombing and vandalism of hundreds of pro-life churches and pregnancy centres, they viciously pursued pro-life Americans,” the petition adds.
The longest sentence was given last year to Lauren Handy, who received four years and nine months in prison for her role in a protest at an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C. The second longest was also given last year to Bevelyn Beatty Williams, who received three years and five months in prison for a protest inside an abortion clinic in New York City.
Several pro-life activists in their mid-to-late 70s also received multiyear sentences for their protests.
“These 21 peaceful pro-lifers, many of whom are currently imprisoned for bravely standing up for unborn life, are upstanding citizens and pillars of their communities,” Steve Crampton, who works as senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, said in a statement.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from CNA and Thomas More Society
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