Trump thanks pardoned pro-lifer at National Prayer Breakfast, vows to ‘defend’ religious freedom

Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, President Donald Trump announced plans to create a task force, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, to investigate “anti-Christian” bias within the federal government and establish a presidential commission on religious liberty. As he did so, he also mentioned one of the pro-lifers whom he pardoned just days after his inauguration, thanking her for attending the breakfast.

According to OSV News, Trump said he would sign an executive order naming Bondi the head of a task force to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI — terrible — and other agencies.” He added that Bondi would “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.”

Trump also said that a new presidential commission “will work tirelessly to uphold this most fundamental right [of religious liberty]” that has “been threatened like never before in American history.”

He cited the prosecution of pro-life activists under the Biden-Harris Department of Justice, including Paulette Harlow, who was arrested and charged with Federal Civil Rights Conspiracy and Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) offenses for pro-life activism that had taken place at the Washington Surgi-Clinic abortion facility in D.C. on October 22, 2020.

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President @realDonaldTrump recognizes freed pro-life prisoner at the National Prayer Breakfast. "75-years-old—Paulette Harlow was sentenced to 2 years in prison for peacefully praying outside of a clinic..." "...charged under an obscure law that hadn't been used in years..."

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6:36 PM · Feb 7, 2025

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Trump noted:

Unfortunately in recent years we’ve seen this sacred liberty threatened like never before in American history. […] For example, most of us would not have believed it possible that a grandmother with a severe medical condition, quite elderly woman, would be put in jail for praying here in America. She was put in jail because she was praying.

But we’re joined today by a woman who was 75 years old — Paulette Harlow was sentenced to two years in prison for peacefully praying outside of a clinic, charged under an obscure law that hadn’t been used in years, selectively weaponized against Christians by the previous administration.

[…] At her sentencing, the judge mocked Paulette’s Christian faith.

Exactly two weeks ago, it was my honor to grant Paulette and other persecuted Christians, about 23 of them, a full and unconditional pardon. We got them out of there. We got them out. […] But she was going to be in there for a long time, right, Paulette? But what happened to you must never ever happen again in America, so I want to thank you very much for being here, Paulette. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Enjoy your life.

To confront such weaponization and religious persecution today, I’m signing an executive order to make our attorney General — who’s a great person, she’s going to be a great attorney general, Pam Bondi — the head of a task force, brand new, to eradicate anti-Christian bias. About time, right? 

Harlow told Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany in a recent interview that while she was under house arrest (with her date to report to prison pushed back due to her health), she was not allowed to attend Mass. “What I was surprised at is that this was really targeting my religion, my faith, because if they had just given me an ankle monitor, I could go within three miles of my house,” Harlow said. “They just didn’t want me to go to church.”

She added, “There were several things that were said to us. One was that this trial was not about abortion — which was sort of ridiculous, because that’s the reason that we were there — to stop abortions and to love the mothers and the children, but primarily to see if we could intervene and save the life of the babies — and then saving the life of the baby often saves the life of the mother as well.”

Last summer, Harlow told Live Action News that “when you do a rescue, you have to agree to be totally peaceful and you can pray and you can sing, and what you do is you go to try to help the mothers and let them know you can help them with whatever they need,” she said. “If it’s housing, if it’s to talk to the parents so they don’t get kicked out of the house, if it’s a medical need, help to stay in school or to keep their job. […] So that’s what we do. We try to talk to the mother. We try to love them.”

“God made life, not us, and so we have to do a better job of taking care of one another, not just the unborn, but especially women. We’ve done a horrible job at that,” she added at the time. It was Harlow’s faith that led her to take action.

As President Trump summed up at the National Prayer Breakfast, “If we don’t have religious liberty then we don’t have a free country. We probably don’t even have a country.”