Welcome Pro-Life Pardons

Source: Patriot Post | VIEW ORIGINAL POST ==>

Donald Trump may have moderated on the abortion issue during the presidential campaign after the electoral pushback Republicans endured after Roe v. Wade was overturned, but that doesn’t mean he’s done with the pro-life movement. He showed as much by pardoning 23 pro-lifers unjustly targeted by Joe Biden’s Two-Tiered Justice Department.

Yesterday, I criticized Trump’s pardons of the violent J6ers because he failed to distinguish them from the nonviolent grandmothers who were unjustly prosecuted for wandering the halls of Congress. The pro-life pardons, like those for nonviolent protesters, are praiseworthy.

In fact, it’s largely for the same reason. Biden’s Justice Department weaponized the law against certain conservatives for political reasons. For January 6, that meant indicting as many people as possible to bolster the Insurrection™ narrative. As for pro-lifers, the DOJ targeted them to inspire the rabidly pro-abortion ranks of those voting for the “good Catholic” Biden.

Biden used the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act to intimidate and punish protesters for doing heinous things like … singing hymns and praying outside abortion clinics or talking to women looking to enter those clinics. In the case of Mark Houck, who was eventually acquitted, the DOJ targeted him for pushing another man who threatened his young son outside an abortion clinic.

Some of these pardoned protesters did indeed briefly block access to a facility infamous for performing late-term abortions, but they’ve got nothing on the typical left-wing hooligan screaming obscenities or holding vulgar signs in public places, much less the BLM rioters burning and looting in American cities and facing no punishment whatsoever. The pro-lifers’ real “crime” is that they oppose abortion, the Left’s foremost sacrament.

Evidence of this politicization can be found in the fact that the DOJ didn’t bother to prosecute pro-abortion fanatics who vandalized pro-life clinics or churches or threatened people for not supporting the “right” to kill an unborn child.

Here’s how The Washington Post framed the pardons on X: “President Donald Trump granted pardons Thursday to 23 people who were convicted of blocking access to reproductive health clinics, fulfilling another campaign promise to reward political supporters who have run afoul of the law.”

I suppose that’s one way to put it, but the law in question is an arguably unconstitutional abomination, most often used to silence the free speech rights of pro-life activists.

Democrats passed and Bill Clinton signed the FACE Act in 1994, and their objective has become even more evident in the years since. According to The Daily Wire, “The FACE Act was supposed to protect both churches and clinics, but the law has almost exclusively been used to prosecute pro-lifers. Data obtained by [Texas Republican Congressman Chip] Roy shows that 97% of FACE Act cases brought by the Justice Department have been against pro-life Americans.”

Roy and Senator Mike Lee introduced legislation to repeal the FACE Act this week.

Trump’s pardon language focused on free speech, saying the pardons are for 23 “peaceful pro-life protesters who were prosecuted by the Biden administration for exercising their First Amendment rights.”

The Thomas More Society represented the individuals involved. Peter Breen, executive vice president of the firm, said, “Today is a new day for the pardoned pro-life advocates who have suffered FBI raids, federal prosecutions, and severe punishment for peacefully and courageously witnessing for life. We thank President Trump for keeping his promise to these pro-life mothers, fathers, grandparents, pastors, and priests.”

In related news in Congress, Democrats are fighting tooth and nail to prevent passage of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. It does just what it says — provides legal protection for an infant born alive after an unsuccessful abortion attempt. It happens far more often than anyone on the Left cares to admit. The House passed it yesterday, 220-210, with one “present” vote. Democrats have so far blocked it in the Senate, though Republicans will likely keep trying.

The irony is that such legislation wouldn’t be necessary if the U.S. weren’t among the seven nations in the world that allow late-term abortion. Most nations in Europe allow abortion only in the first trimester — before viability outside the womb.

Finally, the 52nd annual March for Life is being held today, and Vice President JD Vance will speak publicly for the first time since taking office.

Follow Nate Jackson on X/Twitter.