President Trump pardons pro-lifers convicted of FACE Act violations under Biden administration

UPDATE, 1/23/25: President Trump has just signed pardons for a reported 23 pro-lifers who were charged with FACE Act violations; some were also charged with “conspiracy against rights,” a measure first instituted in the late 1800s to prosecute members of the Ku Klux Klan.

“They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people… this is a great honor to sign this,” said the president. “They’ll be very happy.”

1/23/25: From the moment of Donald Trump’s inauguration, many in the pro-life community expected pardons for a large group of pro-lifers, charged under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act after the Biden administration weaponized the Department of Justice (DOJ) to target the pro-life movement. While Trump himself has not yet given any indication regarding if or when the potential pardons may occur, new reporting claims these pardons are in-process and should be expected within days.

According to the Daily Wire, sources close to the White House have said the pardons are imminent. The Thomas More Society is in agreement.

Months before he was elected, Trump said he would free the imprisoned pro-lifers on his first day in office. He mentioned 75-year-old Paulette Harlow in particular, saying, “Paulette is one of many peaceful pro-lifers who Joe Biden has rounded up, sometimes with SWAT teams, and thrown them in jail. Many people are in jail over this … We’re going to get that taken care of immediately — first day.”

Harlow had been placed under house arrest due to ill health, but a judge forced her to return to prison. She is one of nine who were found guilty of ‘conspiracy against rights’ and blocking access to late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo’s Washington, D.C., abortion facility in October of 2020.

As news of the allegedly-imminent pardons was released, Senator Josh Hawley read the stories of the imprisoned pro-lifers:

Here, Senator Hawley discusses imprisoned pro-lifer Bevelyn Williams:

And here, imprisoned pro-lifer Lauren Handy, who was issued the longest prison sentence of all (57 months):

Here, imprisoned pro-life nurse Jean Marshall:

And here, Iraq war veteran Jonathan Darnel, also imprisoned for pro-life activism:

In a recent interview with Tony Perkins, Hawley also strongly argued that it is time for these peaceful pro-lifers to be pardoned.

“These are people who are unjustly in prison, Tony. It’s not even that they’re folks who made a mistake, but at least it was nonviolent. That’s not it. These are people who I believe committed no crime at all. The First Amendment protects your right to pray in a public space. It protects your right to demonstrate in a public space,” Hawley said.

“And these are people who were singled out by the last administration, the most anti-Christian administration in our country’s history. They were singled out to frankly be terrorized using lawfare to make a point, to try to silence all the rest of us, to try to put everybody who’s a person of faith in fear of speaking out and exercising your faith and your freedoms in public. And so, Tony, these convictions are unjust. The application of the law to them in this way was unjust, and I hope the president will very soon pardon these folks and get them out of prison. As you said, 20-plus are still in prison right now. It’s wrong.”

Sen. Josh Hawley Urges Trump to Help Targeted Pro-Lifers

Another of the wrongly-imprisoned pro-lifers is Eva Edl, an 89-year-old woman who survived a communist prisoner-of-war concentration camp during World War II; that experience is what led her to become pro-life, and dedicated to protecting all lives.

“The first time I realized there were abortion clinics in our country was in 1988,” she previously said. “I said to my husband, ‘these are the death camps of America.’ I saw people sitting in front of abortion clinics in Atlanta, and I’ve been involved ever since.”

In addition to demanding a pardon, others in Congress previously  instructed the Biden DOJ to leave behind all records and files pertaining to FACE Act investigations and convictions during the Biden-Harris era.

“It’s not enough to merely end Biden-era discrimination,” Congressman Chip Roy said during a hearing examining unequal applications of the FACE Act under Biden. “We must act to reverse these wrongful imprisonments, reuniting families who have been collateral damage of this administration. The Trump administration should consider pardoning and commuting the sentences of FACAC defendants who have been victims of this targeted harassment. Unequal application of the law is not truly law. It is tyranny imposed on those who didn’t have the power by those who do have it. That’s contrary to everything we believe as Americans.”

Editor’s Note: Take Action at SmashTheFACE.life.  

Tell President Trump, RFK, Jr., Elon, and Vivek:

Stop killing America’s future. Defund Planned Parenthood NOW!