House Republicans request Congress defund enforcement of the FACE Act

A group of House Republicans is asking that Congress defund enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, arguing that recent prosecutions of pro-lifers showed the Biden administration was unable to properly apply the law. 

“The Biden Administration has proven time and time again that it cannot be trusted to faithfully implement and enforce the FACE Act, as written by Congress,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and 11 other House Republicans said last week. 

“Until such a time,” they continued, “Congress ought to withhold the use of the funds for enforcing this law and seriously consider repealing the statute in its entirety.” Among the signatories were Reps. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz), Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), and others. 

Their comments came as part of a March 31 letter to leading members of the Appropriations Committee and Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, which is responsible for crafting the Justice Department’s FY 2024 budget.

It accused the Justice Department of abusing the FACE Act in its pursuit of Mark Houck, whose house was raided by the FBI last year, and activists involved with the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU). 

Mercy Missions co-founder Lauren Handy, who was mentioned in the letter, tweeted that FACE was “defunct” in a post-Dobbs world. “There is no federal right to abortion and so the federal government can not punish prolifers [sic] under the commerce clause,” she said.

The letter argued that a slew of pro-life activists, including Handy and Fr. Fidelis Moscinski, were wrongly targeted by Biden’s DOJ.

“Mark Houck has been found innocent of all charges, but Attorney General Merrick Garland has refused to admit that the overwhelming use of force against an innocent American citizen was a mistake,” it reads.

“This is far from the only example of the Biden DOJ abusing the FACE Act against American citizens. In 2022, the FACE Act was used more than two dozen times against pro-life activists including Mark Houck, Father Fidelis Moscinski, Lauren Handy, Herb Geraghty, and a Holocaust survivor [Eva Edl]. Prior to this year, the FACE Act had never been used to indict individuals related to an attack on a pro-life pregnancy center or house of worship.”

DOJ used the FACE Act, which was intended to prevent obstruction of abortion facilities, in January to indict two left-wing activists for allegedly “using threats of force to intimidate and interfere with the employees” of a pregnancy resource center.

Both Handy and PAAU founder Terrisa Bukovinac were the pro-life activists who obtained aborted children outside Dr. Cesare Santangelo’s abortion business last year. Just after their discovery, the Justice Department indicted Handy and other pro-life activists for allegedly violating the FACE Act. Handy pleaded not guilty. 

Houck, who was found not guilty in January, said he’s planning to sue the FBI and other authorities involved with the raid on his home.

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