“Free Americans should never live in fear of their government targeting them because of their beliefs. Yet, Biden’s Department of Justice has brazenly weaponized the FACE Act against normal, everyday Americans across the political spectrum, simply because they are pro-life,” Roy
said
in a statement at the time. “Our Constitution separates power between the federal government and the states for a reason, and we ignore that safeguard at our own peril. The FACE Act is an unconstitutional federal takeover of state police powers; it must be repealed.”
Roy’s office also noted at the time how the FACE Act made national news after pro-life activist Mark Houck was allegedly
held
at gunpoint and arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) last year in front of his wife and children, citing the FACE Act in relation to a
pushing
incident outside of an abortion facility. Houck was
found
not guilty, with the judge in the case asking the prosecution whether the FACE Act did not “seem to be stretched a little thin here.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is leading companion legislation in the Senate.
“The Constitution reserves general police power to the states, which Congress infringed upon when it passed the FACE Act,” Lee said in September. “Joe Biden’s DOJ has weaponized this constitutionally dubious law against pro-life sidewalk counselors while failing to protect pregnancy centers and churches from arson, vandalism, and violence. It’s time to repeal the FACE Act once and for all.”
Lee also renewed calls to repeal the FACE Act on Tuesday, accusing the DOJ of seemingly using it “to punish pro-life protesters but not their pro-abortion counterparts.”
“The FACE Act criminalizes an odd assortment of offenses, including blocking access to and vandalizing (1) abortion clinics, (2) places of worship, and (3) pregnancy centers,” Lee wrote in a Twitter thread. “
How many prosecutions has Team Biden brought in the second category?
Zero. Not even one.”
“The Biden DOJ has enforced the FACE Act a few times in the second category (pregnancy centers). But cases involving pregnancy centers—which provide pregnant women with free counseling about non-abortion alternatives—remain infrequent relative to criminal acts against them,” he continued. “… The
DOJ seems to obsess over abortion access when enforcing the FACE Act, while ignoring that law’s protections for pro-life and religious institutions—even as crimes against such institutions have skyrocketed.”
He added that as a member of the Judiciary Committee, he has yet to receive answers from Attorney General Merrick Garland about stats related to the DOJ’s enforcement of the FACE Act.
“The FACE Act, it seems, is being used by DOJ to punish pro-life protesters but not their pro-abortion counterparts,” he continued.
“In enacting the FACE Act, moreover, Congress relied on now difficult-to-defend readings of both the Commerce Clause and the Fourteen Amendment. I suspect most of the Republicans who voted for the FACE Act in 1994 would’ve voted differently had they anticipated the one-sided manner in which it would be enforced by DOJ,” he added.
The thread continued:
All of this should beg the question: is the FACE Act sufficiently well written, fairly administered, and clearly appropriate as an exercise of federal lawmaking authority? I believe the answer to that question is “no”—on all three points.
For that reason, I’ve teamed up with
@chiproytx
to introduce the Restoring the First Amendment and Right to Civil Disobedience Act – S. 3017/H.R. 5577. My Senate cosponsors include Senators
@cindyhydesmith
,
@RogerWicker
,
@JDVance1
,
@SenatorBraun
, and
@HawleyMO
. Let’s add more!
Bottom line: the Biden administration incarcerates people for praying at abortion clinics while ignoring violent acts at churches and pregnancy centers. So many camels. So much obsessive attention paid to harmless things mistaken for gnats.
Since the Supreme Court’s
Dobbs
decision, the DOJ has notably charged more pro-life activists under the FACE Act than pro-abortion activists, even though FBI Director Christopher Wray
admitted
in November 2022 that approximately 70 percent of abortion-related threats of violence in the United States since the
Dobbs
decision have been against pro-life groups.
In December 2022, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta also
admitted
in remarks at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division’s 65th Anniversary that the end of
Roe v. Wade
dialed up “the urgency” of the DOJ’s work, including the “enforcement of the FACE Act, to ensure continued lawful access to reproductive services.”
Out of
dozens
of attacks on pregnancy centers since the
Dobbs
leak, only a handful of pro-abortion activists have been arrested, including in
Florida
,
New York
, and
Ohio
.
When questioned by Republicans in March of 2023 about the apparent enforcement discrepancy, Merrick Garland
claimed
more pro-life activists have been prosecuted because they commit crimes “during the daylight,” while pro-abortion activists tend to strike at night.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X
@thekat_hamilton
.