Despite skyrocketing violence against churches and pro-life organizations, the U.S. Department of Justice didn't prosecute anyone under the FACE Act for such crimes against churches and prosecuted only two attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers, according to a recent congressional hearing.
The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday, led by Chairmen Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to discuss concerns with they believe are disparate prosecutions of pro-life advocates under the Biden administration.
Witnesses included Erin Hawley, senior counsel and vice president of the Center for Life and regulatory practice at Alliance Defending Freedom, and Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Steve Crampton.
Paul Vaughn, a Christian father of 11 convicted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, and Jessica L. Waters, a pro-choice professor at American University, also testified.
Lawmakers sought answers to the accusation that the Justice Department hasn't charged pro-choice activists who engaged in violence and vandalism against churches and pro-life pregnancy centers in the wake of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in the same way as pro-life advocates charged with protesting and disrupting abortion clinics.
"Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration until May 2024, the DOJ had brought a total of 24 FACE Act prosecutions against 55 defendants, with only two of these cases concerning attacks on pregnancy resource centers," Roy said during the hearing.
Signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, the FACE Act makes it a federal crime to block or use intimidation to prevent people from receiving an abortion or "reproductive health services." The law does not only apply to abortion facilities, however, as places of worship and pro-life pregnancy resource centers are also protected under federal law.
"Statues of Lady Justice show her wearing a blindfold because it is not supposed to matter who is being judged, what they believe, or who they voted for," Roy stated.
"Unfortunately, over the last four years, the Biden-Harris administration has weaponized this act [through] disproportionately targeting pro-life Americans for FACE Act violations while simultaneously failing to protect pregnancy resource facilities, despite being the target of growing violence," the subcommittee chairman added.
Following the Dobbs decision leak and the subsequent overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 that allowed dozens of states to enact restrictions on abortion access, pro-choice radicals also engaged in a wave of violence against pregnancy centers, including firebombing and vandalism.
Highlighting these concerns about the potential misuse of the FACE Act, Hawley cited the Family Research Council's February 2024 Hostility Against Churches report during her testimony.
The report identified at least 436 acts of hostility against churches in the United States in 2023, more than double the number identified in 2022. The hostile actions reported include 315 acts of vandalism, 75 arson attacks or attempts, 10 gun-related incidents, 20 bomb threats and 37 other incidents.
While the FACE Act is also supposed to protect houses of worship, Hawley noted that the Department of Justice under the Biden administration didn't prosecute individuals under the law for this type of violence.
Hawley questioned why the DOJ had prosecuted more pro-life advocates who obstructed access to abortion facilities than the pro-choice activists who committed hostile acts against pregnancy centers.
"The Biden DOJ's one-sided use of the FACE Act raises serious concerns about viewpoint-based selective enforcement," Hawley testified. "While the executive branch does have discretion to decide whether to prosecute a case, it cannot selectively enforce the law in a way that violates the Constitution."
She argued that the DOJ's actions have left churches and pro-life organizations "largely unprotected."
While some pro-life activists are still waiting for prosecutions of activists who vandalized or firebombed their clinics, the Justice Department is prosecuting four pro-abortion activists who pled guilty earlier this year to vandalizing several pro-life pregnancy centers in Florida. Their guilty pleas come more than two years after vandalizing the centers.
Vaughn, sentenced to three years of supervised release following his conviction under the FACE Act, argued that there is "no reason" for the federal law to remain on the books.
The pro-life advocate believes that state laws are sufficient when it comes to addressing crimes like trespassing.
In October 2022, Vaughn was one of originally 11 people indicted for blocking the entrance to the Carafem Health Center Clinic in the Nashville suburb of Mt. Juliet on March 15, 2021. The FBI arrested the advocate in front of his family during an early morning raid.
"My family spent 20 months of having a potential decade in prison hanging over their heads," the father told lawmakers. "We endured long, stressful days of the actual trial for the sake of government winning a case with no regard to actually seeking justice."
"If abortion is returned to the states, so should the laws governing," he added.
The American University professor who also testified at the hearing expressed support for the FACE Act. Waters cited an uptake in pro-lifers blockading clinics, as well as violence against abortion facilities and their staff around the time Congress decided to implement a federal remedy to address it.
According to the professor, state laws often failed to act as a "deterrent effect," adding that most states didn't have enough resources to respond to large blockades formed by pro-lifers.
"It is plain that many of us differ on questions of the legality and morality of abortion,'" Waters said. "I'm under no Illusions about that as I sit here."
"But where I do hope we do not differ is in our condemnation for vandalism, violence, threats against any reproductive health care facility, whether it is a pro-life facility, an IVF clinic, or a facility that offers comprehensive ranges of services including abortion," she added.
