Following his clemency grant to terrorists involved in his failed coup attempt on January 6, 2021, President Donald Trump pardoned 23 anti-abortion criminals who were convicted of blocking access to reproductive health clinics and intimidating staff and patients.
Trump announced the clemency grants in an Oval Office signing ceremony on the eve of the 52nd annual March for Life in Washington, days after pardoning more than 1,500 terrorists involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Those pardoned include Lauren Handy, Paula “Paulette” Harlow, Jean Marshall, Joan Bell, John Hinshaw, William Goodman, Jonathan Darnel, Heather Idoni, Paul Vaughn, Coleman Boyd, Dennis Green, Paul Place, James Zastrow, Eva Edl, Eva Zastrow, Chester Gallagher, Calvin Zastrow, Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Christopher Moscinski, Bevelyn Williams, Herb Geraghty and Jay Smith.
As thousands of anti-abortion crusaders attended the 52nd annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Jan. 24, Republicans dished out government action to curry favor with the religious zealots who want to impose their version of morality on the nation.
Trump, who cemented the conservative U.S. Supreme Court majority that overturned Roe, he had signaled on at least three occasions before the election that he intended to pardon the anti-abortion criminals.
Trump also signed a memorandum to reinstate the Mexico City policy, which bans global health aid for foreign organizations that provide or promote abortions. The policy was first introduced during the second Reagan administration and has been rescinded by every Democratic president and reinstated by every Republican president since then. Trump previously restored the policy four days into his first term before President Biden rescinded it again a week into his own.
Trump also signed an executive order aimed at enforcing the Hyde Amendment, which has banned the use of any federal dollars on abortions since 1977. The order also rescinds a pair of Biden administration actions intended to expand access to abortion services after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Republicans in Congress passed a redundant measure that would subject doctors and nurses to fines and up to five years in jail. Under current law, any baby who is born alive during an abortion must receive care from health care providers.
After Senate Democrats blocked the bill Wednesday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the proposal is a partisan “attack” on reproductive rights, medical professionals and American women.
“The bill we’re voting on today, the Republicans’ so-called Born Alive bill, is as pernicious as they come. It attacks women’s health care using false narratives and outright fear-mongering, and it adds more legal risk for doctors on something that is already illegal,” said Schumer.
A year after the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision that ended the constitutional right to abortion, 62% of U.S. adults said the practice should be legal in all or most cases, while 36% said it should be illegal in all or most cases.
Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision eliminated the federal right to abortion in June 2022, getting an abortion has changed radically in many parts of the United States—most crucially for people in states that have banned or severely restricted abortion.
The Guttmacher said there were 930,160 abortions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia during 2020.
Anti-abortion extremists who have been considered a current domestic terrorist threat by the United States Department of Justice will benefit from a significant shift in the government’s approach to prosecuting violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, scaling back its efforts in cases involving demonstrators who interfere with patient access to reproductive health clinics.
The move aligns with directives from the Trump administration to address what it has characterized as the “weaponization” of federal law enforcement.
“It’s only been five days and Trump is already abusing his power, endangering patients and providers so he can push access out of reach,” said Reproductive Freedom for All President Mini Timmaraju. “This reckless action will open the floodgates to violence and harassment against people simply seeking the care they need. We must hold the Trump administration accountable for emboldening dangerous extremists and attacking our reproductive freedoms.”
Coleman Boyd, 53, who was among those pardoned on Thursday, said at the annual March for Life rally that Trump should support a national abortion ban, something he has said he would veto if such a law were to be passed by Congress.
“I’m very thankful that he pardoned us. I think he’s done lots of amazing things in the first week. I just think he is bad off on abortion,” said Boyd. “I think he is a horrible president when it comes to abortion.”
Boyd was one of six defendants convicted by a jury for federal civil rights offenses arising out of their blockade of a reproductive health care clinic in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, on March 5, 2021.
According to evidence presented at trial, Boyd, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Calvin Zastrow, Paul Vaughn and Dennis Green engaged in a conspiracy, and used physical obstruction to interfere with employees and stop at least one patient from receiving reproductive health services.
“I want to make clear that this administration stands by you, we stand with you, and most importantly we stand with the most vulnerable and the basic principle that people exercising the right to protest on behalf of the most vulnerable should never have the government go after them ever again,” said Vice President JD Vance during a speech at the March for Life.
Since the 1970s in the United States, there have been at least 11 murders, 42 bombings, 200 arsons, and 531 assaults against abortion providers and patients.
In a memo issued by Chad Mizelle, the department’s new chief of staff, the Justice Department stated that FACE Act prosecutions would now be pursued only in “extraordinary circumstances” or cases involving “significant aggravating factors,” such as incidents resulting in death, serious bodily harm, or severe property damage.
The FACE Act, signed into law in 1994 by President Bill Clinton, protects access to reproductive health clinics by making it a crime for demonstrators to block entrances, damage property or threaten patients.
The United States has a long history of anti-abortion violence directed at both patients and providers but less severe conduct, Mizelle noted, could be handled by state or local authorities.
As part of this policy shift, the department dropped three pending FACE Act cases, including one involving a 2021 blockade of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philadelphia. The case centered on an anti-abortion activist who barricaded himself inside a bathroom, causing the facility’s evacuation.
“President Donald Trump campaigned on the promise of ending the weaponization of the federal government and has directed all federal departments to identify and correct such practices,” Mizelle wrote in the memo. The announcement coincided with the annual March for Life rally in Washington, where thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators gathered, and came a day after Trump granted pardons to 23 individuals convicted of FACE Act violations during the Biden administration.
Among those pardoned were activists involved in a 2023 incident at the Washington Surgi-Clinic, where demonstrators reportedly pushed their way into the facility, injuring a nurse and harassing patients. Trump described the individuals as “peaceful pro-life protesters” and criticized the prosecutions as excessive.
The FACE Act, enacted in 1994, criminalizes efforts to block clinic entrances, damage property, or threaten patients or staff at reproductive health facilities. The law has been a focal point of debate, particularly in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade. During the Biden administration, the Justice Department significantly increased prosecutions under the statute, drawing sharp criticism from Republican lawmakers who argued that the law was being misused to suppress free speech.
The policy change reflects a broader effort by the Trump administration to reexamine federal enforcement priorities. Proponents argue that scaling back FACE Act prosecutions will curb perceived overreach by federal authorities, while critics contend that it risks emboldening disruptive or violent conduct targeting clinics.
Prosecutions Under the FACE Act
Recent years have seen a range of cases brought under the FACE Act, including both criminal prosecutions and civil actions. Notable examples include:
- In 2023, four defendants were charged with Civil Rights Conspiracy and FACE Act offenses for their 2022 targeted attacks on pregnancy resource centers in Florida. The defendants vandalized the facilities with spray painted threats, including “If abortions aren’t safe than neither are you,” and “We’re coming for U.” The defendants conduct intimidated reproductive health care providers and damaged the pregnancy resource centers’ property.
- In 2023, eight defendants were charged with Conspiracy Against Rights and FACE Act offenses related to a 2020 planned blockade of a Detroit, Michigan, area reproductive health care clinic. Two of those defendants were further charged with a FACE Act offense in connection with their 2021 blockade of a Saginaw, Michigan, reproductive health care clinic. The defendants conduct in both instances interfered with patients and providers seeking to exercise their reproductive health rights.
- In 2022, 11 defendants were charged with Conspiracy Against Rights and FACE Act offenses related to a 2021 blockade of a Nashville, Tennessee, area reproductive health care clinic. The defendants livestreamed the event on social media, during which they blockaded the entrances to the clinic and interfered with the reproductive health rights of patients and clinic employees. Several defendants traveled from out-of-state to participate in the charged offenses.
- In 2022, 10 defendants were indicted for Conspiracy Against Rights and FACE Act offenses in connection with a 2020 planned blockade of a District of Columbia area abortion clinic. The defendants bound themselves with chains and locks and physically obstructed clinic staff and patients during the blockade, which was livestreamed on social media. Several defendants traveled from out-of-state to participate in the charged offenses.
- In 2022, a defendant was charged with a FACE Act violation related to damage he caused to a Chicago, Illinois, area Planned Parenthood clinic. The defendant used a slingshot and fired metal ball bearings at the clinic’s glass door causing damage to the facility.
- In 2022, 11 defendants were indicted for Conspiracy Against Rights and FACE Act offenses in connection with a 2021 clinic blockade at a Nashville, Tennessee, area reproductive health care clinic. The defendants planned the organized blockade, and they livestreamed the incident on social media. Several defendants traveled from out-of-state to participate in the charged offenses.
- In 2022, a defendant was charged with a FACE Act offense after he used a physical obstruction to interfere with a Hempstead, New York, area Planned Parenthood clinic. The defendant fastened chains and locks to the clinic’s gate and poured superglue on it to keep the clinic’s gate from opening. The defendant also lay on the ground and prevented vehicles from entering the clinic’s parking lot.
- In 2022, a defendant was indicted for FACE Act violations in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania after he assaulted a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area Planned Parenthood clinic escort. The defendant assaulted the escort twice on the same date, with one assault resulting in bodily injury.
- In 2022, an Oregon man pled guilty to a FACE Act offense for causing damage to a Grants Pass, Oregon, area Planned Parenthood facility in 2021. The defendant threw a concrete block through the clinic’s window and damaged its intercom system.
- In 2022, a California man was charged with a FACE Act offense for causing damage to a Los Angeles area abortion clinic in 2021. The defendant fired multiple pellets from a pellet gun causing damage to the facility.
- In 2021, a defendant was charged with a FACE Act offense for assaulting a New Jersey area reproductive health care clinic escort as he attempted to assist clinic patients.
- In 2021, a defendant pleaded guilty to federal offenses, including a FACE Act violation, for making two separate telephonic threats to a Columbus, Ohio, area abortion clinic. During the first call, the defendant threated to kill a clinic patient, and later, the defendant called the clinic and made a bomb threat. The defendant was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.
- In 2021, a defendant pled guilty to a FACE Act violation and other state felony offenses for throwing a Molotov cocktail at a Fort Myers, Florida, abortion clinic.
- In 2021, a defendant pled guilty for damaging a Newark, Delaware, abortion clinic. The defendant threw a Molotov cocktail at the facility and vandalized it with spray paint.
- In 2020, a defendant pled guilty and was sentenced to two years imprisonment for FACE Act related offenses in connection with a bomb threat call the defendant made to a Jacksonville, Florida, abortion clinic.
- In 2019, a defendant was indicted for FACE Act violations and other federal offenses related to a 2015 shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The defendant traveled to the facility and shot at several civilians, killing two and injuring three others. He then forced his way into the clinic where staff and patients hid. During a stand-off with the police, the defendant shot at police, killing one officer and injuring several others. The defendant also shot a civilian who was sheltering in place. The case is currently pending in federal district court.
- In 2019, a defendant pled guilty to federal offenses, including a FACE Act violation, for causing damage to a reproductive health care clinic in Columbia, Missouri. The defendant threw a Molotov cocktail through the front door of a Planned Parenthood clinic. The defendant was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
- In 2018, a defendant directed a threatening social media post to Planned Parenthood facilities and staff. The defendant plead guilty to federal offenses, including a FACE Act charge, and was sentenced to six months imprisonment.
- A defendant was charged with FACE Act and other federal offenses for sending several threatening emails in 2017 to abortion clinics located in Chicago, Illinois, and Hammond, Indiana. The defendant pled guilty and was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.
- A defendant pled guilty to committing a FACE Act violation and another related federal offense for making several threatening telephone calls to an Anchorage, Alaska, area reproductive health care clinic in 2016. The defendant had made a death threat and a bomb threat. The defendant was sentenced to probation.
- In 2016, two defendants were charged with FACE Act violations for vandalizing a Baltimore, Maryland, area abortion clinic on two separate occasions. One defendant pled guilty and the other was convicted at trial. Both defendants were sentenced to probation and ordered to pay restitution.
- A defendant pled guilty to FACE Act violations for making telephonic death threats in 2014 to two Minneapolis, Minnesota, reproductive health care clinics. The defendant was sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
- An Indiana defendant was convicted and sentenced to probation for committing a FACE Act violation in 2013. The defendant broke into a Bloomington, Indiana, Planned Parenthood clinic and caused extensive damage. The defendant was ordered to pay restitution for the damage caused.
- A defendant was convicted and sentenced to probation for a FACE Act violation. The defendant was charged in 2012 for calling a Virginia OBGYN practice and making a bomb threat because the OBGYN practice offered abortion services.
- In 2012, a defendant was convicted by a jury of FACE Act and federal arson charges for setting fire to a Planned Parenthood facility located in Grand Chute, Wisconsin. The defendant was sentenced to a total of 11 years imprisonment.
- A defendant pled guilty to a FACE Act violation and other federal charges for throwing a Molotov cocktail at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Madera, California, and other offenses committed in 2011. The defendant was sentenced to a period of incarceration and ordered to pay restitution.
Despite the decrease in federal prosecutions, reproductive health providers have emphasized the continued need for legal protections. Advocates warn that reduced enforcement could lead to increased harassment and violence at clinics, recalling the surge of anti-abortion violence in the late 20th century, when bombings, arson, and other attacks caused millions of dollars in damages and disrupted services nationwide.
Between 1977 and 1988, the U.S. experienced an epidemic of violence against abortion clinics, with 110 documented cases of arson, firebombing, or bombing. Vigorous investigation and prosecution of perpetrators eventually curbed the attacks, but the financial toll on clinics—estimated at $7.6 million—was substantial.
Proponents of the FACE Act argue that it remains a vital tool for ensuring safe access to reproductive health care, while opponents see its use as infringing on First Amendment rights. The Justice Department’s new policy is likely to deepen the divide over how best to balance free speech and public safety in this contentious arena.
As the debate continues, the decision underscores the evolving priorities of federal law enforcement and the enduring controversy surrounding reproductive health care in America.