The Biden administration is using a novel application of an 1870 statute to enhance the sentences of peaceful abortion protesters, data provided exclusively to the Daily Caller confirms.
In the 30-year history of the Freedom of Access to Clinics (FACE) Act, the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) in just over three years has levied over a quarter of the law's total charges, most of which have carried this novel sentence enhancement, the data also shows.
The data, along with the unprecedented enhancement, provide fuel to criticisms from conservatives that the Biden admin is unfairly targeting pro-lifers and using the DOJ for political ends.
In some instances under previous administrations, threatening to harm or kill a clinic employee carried less severe punishments. Under Biden's, however, elderly women peacefully protesting an abortion clinic have faced much harsher consequences. After the Supreme Court's Roe vs Wade decision leak in 2022, hundreds of attacks were waged against pro-life pregnancy centers and churches, but the DOJ has only prosecuted five individuals for such offenses.
From 1994 to 2024, there were 205 cases against pro-life activists and only six against abortion activists, data provided to the Caller by Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy's office reveals. Prosecutions of pro-life individuals constitute roughly 97% of all FACE Act cases.
At least 55 of those cases were prosecuted during the Biden administration, only five of which involved attacks on pregnancy resource centers. In less than four years, Biden's DOJ has accounted for over a quarter of all FACE prosecutions and approximately 24% of cases targeting pro-life activists, the data demonstrates.
The FACE Act became law in 1994 and prohibits "violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain or provide reproductive health services," according to the DOJ. The law also applies to pro-life pregnancy resource centers and places of worship.
Some claim, however, the Biden Administration is weaponizing FACE against individuals who protest abortion. In the past two years, FBI agents raided the homes of pro-life activists Mark Houck and Paul Vaughn (the former being acquitted and the latter escaping prison time) during Biden's presidency.
FACE "has been politicized and abused to target peaceful pro-life advocates," while activists "who violently attacked" pro-life clinics walk free, Erin Hawley, Vice President of the Center for Life and Regulatory Practice at the Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF), told the Daily Caller.
She explained how the DOJ prosecuted at least 26 pro-life individuals in 2022 but zero activists "who obstructed or vandalized pregnancy care centers."
In 2023, Roy and Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee introduced legislation to repeal the FACE Act.
"Biden's Department of Justice has brazenly weaponized the FACE Act against normal, everyday Americans across the political spectrum, simply because they are pro-life," Roy stated in a press release.
The Caller reached out to the DOJ, but they did not answer questions about FACE directly, instead pointing to its website. The DOJ told the Caller to contact the FBI for more information regarding investigations into attacks on pregnancy centers and churches.
The FBI did not respond in time for publication, although in 2022, the agency told The Daily Signal it was investigating attacks on pregnancy resource centers and churches. The FBI would not share if it had arrested anyone in relation to the attacks.
From May 2022 to March 2024, there were at least 90 attacks on pro-life organizations and pregnancy resource centers, according to CatholicVote, which tracks attacks by abortion activists. The data is gathered from news reports, direct tips and public information the attackers posted online.
Many of the incidents appear to be associated with the pro-abortion groups Jane's Revenge and Ruth Sent Us. Since May 2020, there have been over 400 attacks on Catholic churches, the website reports.
"Congress ought to repeal [FACE] immediately," the Thomas More Society's Senior Counsel, Steve Crampton, told the Caller. Crampton represented Vaughn during his FACE trial.
Crampton stated unequivocally that pro-life protests have not increased in aggression during the post-Roe era.
He said there was a lack of "hardcore" protests by pro-life activists after the Dobbs decision and contrasted that with the hundreds of attacks against churches and pro-life pregnancy centers.
Organizations like the National Abortion Federation (NAF) claimed attacks on abortion clinics increased in 2022. The NAF's statistics are based on reports from facility members. A NAF report stated there was an increase in "clinic invasions," or individuals who "fake appointments," "force their way into the clinic" and "refuse to leave."
They reported 20 clinic invasions in 2022. From 2020 to 2022, there were zero reported murders, attempted murders and bombings at abortion clinics. There were four reported incidents of arson and 101 acts of vandalism in 2022, though.
The Crime Prevention Center (CPC) also conducted a study in 2022, but it showed pro-life groups experienced over 22 times more violence than pro-choice organizations. CPC identified 135 attacks on pro-life groups from the date of the Supreme Court leak to September 24, 2022. There were only six cases concerning pro-choice groups. CPC said NAF's 2021 report failed to provide a list of cases to substantiate the data.
Crampton argued there has not been an increase in pro-life protests, nonviolent or otherwise. He stated only a small percentage of pro-life individuals engage in demonstrations at abortion clinics.
He also noted how "for the first time in history," Biden's DOJ added underlying charges, specifically the felony Conspiracy Against Rights charge, to FACE Act prosecutions.
The Conspiracy Against Rights law prohibits two or more people from "conspir[ing] to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate" anyone exercising their constitutional rights. A violation of the law is punishable by fines and up to 10 years in prison, providing there is no kidnapping or sexual assault.
Crampton explained how the original purpose of the law -- enacted in 1870 -- was to protect newly enfranchised African American voters, but the Biden Administration "twisted" it to target peaceful pro-life activists exercising their First Amendment rights. Moreover, after the Dobbs decision, he said there was no constitutional right to an abortion.
President Bill Clinton nominated D.C.-based Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in 1997. She has sentenced at least nine defendants during Biden's presidency, each time delivering severe punishments.
The Biden administration charged those defendants in 2022 with allegedly obstructing access to an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C. Each protester faced up to 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release and fines of up to $350,000, according to a DOJ press release.
The demonstrators protested the Washington Surgi-Clinic abortionist, Cesare Santangelo, who was accused of violating federal law by allegedly performing partial-birth abortions. Activists with the group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising reportedly found five fetuses -- which appeared to be victims of late term abortions -- in a box of 115 fetuses outside the clinic.
Pro-life organizations and five House Republicans in 2024 called for investigations into the five abortions.
One demonstrator at the clinic was a 75 year-old woman, Paulette "Paula" Harlow. Kollar-Kotelly sentenced her to 24 months in prison for allegedly violating FACE and the Conspiracy Against Rights law by attending the demonstration, according to a DOJ press release. Another defendant, Lauren Handy, was sentenced to almost five years in prison.