March for Life Reacts to Trump Pardoning 23 Pro-Life Activists

Thousands of Americans gathered in Washington for the 52^nd annual March for Life on Friday, just one day after President Donald Trump issued pardons for 23 pro-life activists who were prosecuted under the Biden administration for their activism.

“I’m just so delighted,” Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, told The Daily Signal, commenting on a video she had seen of a pro-life activist being released from prison and being reunited with her baby.

“It was so unjust that they’ve been in jail for so long, and I’m just grateful that in [Trump’s] first few days that he would give a reprieve and pardon to those who were wrongly incarcerated,” Mancini said.  

During the Biden administration, nearly two dozen pro-life activists were charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for actions including praying outside abortion clinics and encouraging women in unplanned pregnancies to choose life.

Pro-life leaders and other Americans are heralding Trump’s action as a victory.  

“I’m so excited and so happy,” Lauren, a marcher from Pittsburgh who did not give her last name, said of the pardons, adding that she used to protest abortion with one of the individuals who was imprisoned under the FACE Act and who Trump has pardoned.  

“I think it’s an important message for free speech,” a marcher from Fargo, North Dakota, said of the pardons. 

A pro-life marcher from Maryland told The Daily Signal he was “delighted” to see the activists pardoned, adding, “now, I hope they make an effort to get rid of that law.” 

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, introduced a bill to repeal the law that was used to charge and imprison the pro-life Americans. Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, said she thinks the FACE Act is unconstitutional and should be repealed.

“It is basically an unconstitutional violation of Americans’ First Amendment rights,” Nance said. “It protects the abortion clinics, but violates our free speech rights and our rights to peacefully assemble.” 

Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins said the FACE Act should “absolutely” be repealed.  

“When they were firebombing pregnancy centers after the [Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade], zero people were put in jail. Zero,” Hawkins said. “They’ve only ever used this to target pro-lifers. This should never have happened in the first place. It was a travesty of justice. FACE needs to go.”  

Dr. Susan Bane, vice chair of the board of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said the FACE Act convicts had a right to let their voices be heard.  

“Individuals are allowed to peacefully protest in America,” the pro-life OBGYN said. 

Katie Daniel, director of legal affairs for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the FACE Act was supposed to protect both pregnancy resource centers and abortion clinics, but it overwhelmingly has been used to prosecute pro-life protesters.  

“This is a law that’s got to go,” she told The Daily Signal. “It’s been used for evil from the very beginning, and certainly nobody did that more than the Biden-Harris administration.” 

A female student from Liberty University said she was thrilled Trump had pardoned the pro-lifers.  

“Those rescuers and those pro-lifers that were so courageous to stay in jail, away from their families, away from their fiances, their children, their grandchildren, for over two years, it was such a powerful statement for them to make,” the young woman said, “and President Trump pardoning them was such an amazing thing, which he acted on so quickly.”

She said Congress should repeal the FACE Act “as soon as possible,” adding: “I think that it is a breach of our constitutional rights.”

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