EXCLUSIVE: House Moves To Repeal FACE Act After Years Of Weaponization

WASHINGTON—The House of Representatives will take steps towards repealing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act this week, a law repeatedly weaponized against pro-life activists by President Joe Biden’s administration.

Lawmakers on Wednesday will mark up H.R. 589, the FACE Act Repeal Act of 2025, which Texas Congressman Chip Roy introduced in January. The bill “repeals provisions of federal criminal law that prohibit conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with persons who are seeking to (1) obtain or provide reproductive health services, or (2) exercise their right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”

Senator Mike Lee of Utah introduced the Senate version of the bill in January as well.

The move comes after years of work from Roy and his team, who aggressively argued in favor of repealing the FACE Act while the Biden Justice Department used the law to imprison pro-life activist after pro-life activist from 2022 to 2024, often pairing FACE with a felony conspiracy charge to lock peaceful pro-life protesters. President Donald Trump pardoned these imprisoned activists earlier this year.

“Over the past 4 years, we have witnessed the weaponization of the justice system, using the FACE Act to jail Americans fighting for the right to life,” Roy told The Daily Wire on Monday afternoon. “It is not enough to merely end Biden-Harris era discrimination — we must act to reverse course, ensuring selective and unfair political prosecutions are never again possible under this statute.”

U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke speaks on a federal investigation of the City of Phoenix. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“While I am proud that the FACE Act is finally being moved through committee, Congress should move quickly to repeal the FACE Act and put an end to legal harassment of pro-life Americans once and for all,” he added.

The FACE Act was intended to protect abortion clinics, pregnancy centers, and places of worship. But the Biden administration — led by former U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke — almost exclusively used it to target the pro-life movement following the May 2022 leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion showing that Roe v. Wade would soon be overturned.

Roe’s overturn increased “the urgency” of the Justice Department’s work, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said, including the “enforcement of the FACE Act, to ensure continued lawful access to reproductive services.”

Roy’s office obtained data that confirmed the Biden Justice Department charged 24 FACE Act cases against 55 defendants, and just two of those cases were brought in defense of pregnancy centers. None were brought in defense of a house of worship, even though hundreds of Catholic Churches have been attacked, firebombed, and vandalized with pro-abortion slogans since the Supreme Court leak.

“Nearly 92% of all Biden-Harris FACE Act cases were brought against pro-life demonstrators, despite over 285 churches and 94 pregnancy resource centers and pro-life groups being attacked and vandalized since May 2022,” Roy wrote in a Daily Wire op-ed in October.

“To stop this growing weaponization and intimidation, Congress should stop this targeted harassment and ensure the FACE Act is repealed,” he added at the time. “Allowing it to remain means permitting bureaucrats at the highest levels of government to unequally apply the law, target pro-life Americans with unwarranted retaliation, and shield a radical abortion industry.”

The move is also significant given that Trump’s Justice Department is rolling back aggressive prosecution of the FACE Act, saying that the Biden administration weaponized the law against pro-life protesters.

In a January memo, Trump Justice Department Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle said that it will only prosecute the FACE Act in cases of “extraordinary circumstances” or in instances related to “death, serious bodily harm, or serious property damage.”

“Cases not presenting significant aggravating factors can adequately be addressed under state or local law,” the memo said. “Additionally, until further notice, no new abortion-related FACE Act actions — criminal or civil — will be permitted without authorization from the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.”

Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.