DOJ’s targeting of so-called ‘violent’ pro-lifers is misleading and dangerous

In the aftermath of the overturn of Roe v. Wade, attacks against pro-life facilities and pregnancy resource centers have been at an all-time high. Despite this reality, a recent Washington Post article highlights the greater push by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) to target pro-lifers, with the misleading claim that such prosecutions are “urgent” due to the pro-life movement’s “extremely dangerous behavior.”

Attempts at deception

In its campaign, the DOJ is using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act to prosecute certain pro-life activists, most of whom have been arrested for non-violent violations like sitting in front of or within an abortion facility. According to the Post, “the Justice Department has brought 20 criminal prosecutions and one civil case under the FACE Act against a total of 46 defendants, according to federal officials, with all but one of the cases involving charges for disruptions at abortion clinics” (emphasis added). The lone outlier was a case of pro-abortion activists arrested for vandalism at three Florida pregnancy resource centers last year.

Citing data from the National Abortion Federation (NAF) — an arguably biased source — the article notes, “Obstructions at clinics across the United States rose from 45 in 2021 to 287 last year, while stalking incidents rose from eight to 81, according to NAF’s annual survey. There were also increases in bomb threats, burglaries and assaults.” But there is no indication of where the NAF got these numbers and no definition as to what terms like ‘stalking’ or ‘obstruction’ actually mean in relation to abortion facilities. There is also no data to back up the vague mention of increases in bomb threats, burglaries, or assaults.

READ: Bill introduced to repeal ‘weaponized’ FACE Act largely used against peaceful pro-lifers

Abortion activists also paint a picture of pro-lifers coordinating large-scale, violent efforts against abortion facilities. “What providers have to face every day is being targeted by people coordinating across the country,” said Melissa Fowler, NAF’s chief program officer. “It’s completely appropriate that the Justice Department is recognizing this and charging people. We know historically that people will escalate their behavior.” The federal indictments for those pro-lifers accused of FACE Act violations also speak of a large-scale coordinated effort to attack abortion businesses, as the actions are described as “recruiting participants and coordinating their actions through social media posts and cellphone conversations.”

“We prosecute without respect to ideology,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a Senate hearing in the spring, “but we do focus on the most violent acts, the most dangerous actors, and the cases most likely to lead to danger to most Americans.”

Surge in pro-abortion violence

While the number of prosecutions and Garland’s statements would lead many to believe that pro-life activists are violent perpetrators, there have been no widespread calls inciting pro-lifers to violence against abortion facilities. There has, however, been a call to violence on the pro-abortion side.

In June 2022, the pro-abortion terror group “Jane’s Revenge” issued a communique in which it urged its followers to carry “anger out into the world” by “expressing it physically” should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade. Within that communique, followers were encouraged to enact a “Night of Rage” and instructed to “adopt increasingly extreme tactics” against pro-life centers. In response, acts of vandalism and violence against pro-life offices and pregnancy resource centers rose dramatically, with the tagline “Jane was here” — a common calling card spray painted on many of the vandalized facilities. Many facilities were also sprayed with the threat, “If abortions aren’t safe, neither are you.”

While there is no hard data on how many pro-life pregnancy resource centers, pro-life offices, and churches have been attacked since Roe‘s overturn, the number of incidents has skyrocketed. While pro-lifers have been arrested for sit-ins, abortion activists have been throwing Molotov cocktails and firebombs at pro-life offices, spray-painting threats on pregnancy resource centers, breaking windows, defacing statues, and a host of other acts of vandalism. Yet few charges have been made against these aggressors, despite the fact that even Supreme Court justices and their families were subject to neighborhood protests and threats of violence after the Dobbs leak and subsequent decision.

In November 2022, FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted that about 70% of abortion-related violence and threats since the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization have been perpetrated against pro-life groups. Emails later brought to light have shown that the DOJ attempted to downplay the violence of pro-abortion groups. And though the many acts of violence against pro-life facilities also violate the FACE Act, Garland’s excuse for not catching the pro-abortion vandals is that they “are doing this at night in the dark.”

Currently, a number of pro-lifers convicted of obstructing an abortion facility face up to 11 years in prison. Meanwhile, the activists behind the threatening Jane’s Revenge communique and the many vandals responsible for arson, broken windows, spray-painted walls, broken signs, and more remain largely unsolved and unprosecuted.

If the DOJ truly wanted to save Americans from dangerous actions, it would seriously investigate threats and harm against pro-life facilities and act to protect its most vulnerable citizens from their greatest threat — the violence of abortion.