“Next we have a set of pardons for peaceful pro-life protesters who were prosecuted by the Biden administration for exercising their First Amendment rights,” announced a Trump staffer as the president signed the proclamation Thursday afternoon.
“Twenty-three people were prosecuted,” Donald Trump said, addressing the press. “They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people. They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this.”
“They’ll be very happy,” he added, before addressing his staffer again. “So, they’re all in prison, then?”
“Some are, and some are out of custody,” came the reply.
“Ridiculous,” Trump responded.
The “Crimes”
Those pardoned had been charged with barricading doors of abortion mills, preventing women from entering to have their unborn babies murdered. The Thomas More Society, which represented many of them, had petitioned Trump for the pardons, explaining that “the Biden DOJ routinely and unconstitutionally weaponized the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and ‘Conspiracy Against Rights’ statute against peaceful pro-life advocates.”
Their cases involved incidents in Washington, D.C.; Long Island and Manhattan, New York; Nashville, Tennessee; and Detroit, Michigan. Lauren Handy, director of activism and mutual aid for the nonprofit Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, is one of those pardoned. She was serving a five-year sentence when released. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) addressed her story before his colleagues shortly after her arrest:
She’s 31 years old, from Alexandria, Virginia. Lauren was one of two individuals who in 2022 discovered a box of 115 fetal remains here in Washington, D.C. — 115 pieces of remains of aborted babies, a number of them late-term abortions not permitted to happen under federal law. Babies who had come to term and had been killed, and whose remains had been put into boxes and discarded like so much common trash. They came to be known as the “DC Five.” Lauren helped discover them.
Lauren also dedicated her life at even her young age to serving mothers in — to helping those who had no hope. And what was she given in return? In August of 2023, she was prosecuted under the so-called FACE Act. She was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison — 57 months, the longest prison sentence of anyone under this federal statute ever.
President Bill Clinton signed the FACE Act into law in 1994, making it a federal crime to block access to abortion mills and churches. Never has it been enforced for the latter; rather, it targets only pro-life activists — even those engaged in peaceful protests. Violators face civil and criminal penalties, including fines and imprisonment. The law also allows affected individuals and organizations to seek damages through civil lawsuits.
“I’m grateful to our beloved president for living up to his pro-life position and standing up for his pro-life supporters,” Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry told The New American. He continued:
Whether we are talking about Holocaust survivor Eva Edl or Joan Andrews Bell, a 75-year-old grandmother; Bevelyn Beatty Williams, a young mother of three small children; … Lauren Handy, who discovered the ‘Five’; [or any other] of my pro-life compatriots being held, these dear souls are green martyrs (meaning they are still alive but are giving their lives for unborn babies), and are a constant testimony against the brutal murder of innocent children.
Only a First Step
Terry emphasized, however, that their pardons are only a first step. He wants to see the FACE Act “overturned immediately.” (Republicans have already begun that process, with legislation introduced on January 21.) “Those of us in the pro-life movement should get on with the business of making murder a crime,” Terry said.
The pardons come one day before Friday’s annual March for Life in Washington. Trump is schedule to address the crowd in a video.
