Biden DOJ weaponized FACE Act to imprison pro-life activists, attorney tells House: ‘Systematic campaign’

A pro-life attorney alleged during a House hearing that the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) led a “systematic campaign” against pro-life protesters who were charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and sentenced to several years in prison in 2020.

Peter Breen, the executive vice president and head of litigation at the Christian nonprofit law firm Thomas More Society, testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight on Tuesday about the Biden administration’s prosecution of 23 pro-life protesters, many of whom were part of a large-scale Washington, D.C., abortion clinic blockade. President Donald Trump pardoned all the activists in one of his first executive actions in January.

“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.

PRO-LIFE ACTIVIST PROSECUTED BY BIDEN DOJ REACTS TO TRUMP PARDON: ‘I WANT TO GIVE HIM A HUG’

Thomas More Society head of litigation and Executive Vice President Peter Breen testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on the “weaponization” of the Biden administration’s DOJ. (House Judiciary Comittee/Getty Images)

The hearing, titled, “Entering the Golden Age: Ending the Weaponization of the Justice Department,” included testimonies from Chris Swecker, former FBI assistant director of the Criminal Investigations Unit, Jonathan Fahey, a legal partner at Holtzman Vogel, and Brendan Ballou, a federal prosecutor.

The Thomas More Society represented several of the 23 pro-life activists who were imprisoned during the 2020 demonstrations and urged Trump during his first few days in office to pardon them.

“They should not have been prosecuted,” Trump said during the signing. “Many of them are elderly people. They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this.”

Breen said the Trump administration’s pardons sent a “powerful message.” 

“On behalf of our clients and the pro-life movement as whole, we are thankful to President Trump for his recent pardons and to the members of this House who supported that effort,” he said. “Those pardons sent a powerful message to the country, and especially to the millions of Americans in the pro-life movement, that the federal government should not be weaponized against Americans because of their sincere beliefs in the sanctity of human life.”

PRO-LIFE ACTIVISTS FOUND GUILTY ON CONSPIRACY CHARGES FOR 2020 ‘RESCUE ACTION’ AT DC CLINIC

Lauren Handy, director of activism for Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, poses for a portrait in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 2022. She was one of the 23 pardoned by President Donald Trump in January. (Eric Lee for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Prosecutors from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia argued the pro-life activists violated the 1994 FACE Act, a federal law that prohibits physical force, threats of force or intentionally damaging property to prevent someone from obtaining or providing abortion services.

“Evidence presented at trial established that the defendants used force and physical obstruction to execute a clinic blockade that was organized by the group’s leaders,” the Biden DOJ wrote in its announcement of several indictments. “The defendants’ forced entry into the clinic at the outset of the invasion resulted in injury to a clinic nurse. During the blockade, one patient had to climb through a receptionist window to access the clinic, while another laid in the hallway outside of the clinic in physical distress, unable to gain access to the clinic.”

However, the FACE Act is now a target of the pro-life movement, as opponents of the law say it infringes on the First Amendment, restricts the freedom to protest and unfairly targets anti-abortion activists.

“Of course, we urge Congress to repeal the FACE Act, which is selectively and illegally enforced by pro-abortion presidential administrations,” Breen said. “But in the immediate term, Congress has several other concrete steps it can take, working with the new Administration to define the proper scope of the laws and to defend the rights of pro-life Americans.”

PRO-LIFE PROTESTERS PARDONED BY TRUMP, FOX CONFIRMS

People attend the annual March for Life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 19, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

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House members and witnesses also spent much of the two-hour hearing discussing a Richmond FBI internal 2023 memo titled, “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.” 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ for comment.