Rep. Chip Roy urges colleagues to axe Clinton law used to toss peaceful pro-lifers in prison

Texas Rep. Chip Roy (R) is urging his colleagues to vote before year end or in early January on the repeal of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. While Republicans might have enough votes — and will have a trifecta as of January — it is unclear whether they have the requisite will.

"We're after the election now, so I feel like we ought to put it out there this year. Go ahead and vote on it," Roy told the Daily Signal, "so that more Americans can’t get persecuted."

The FACE Act, ratified by President Bill Clinton in 1994, is supposed to protect access to churches and abortion facilities but has been weaponized by the Biden Department of Justice to lock up peaceful pro-life protesters, such as Paulette Harlow, 75; Jean Marshall, 74; Joan Bell, 76; John Hinshaw, 69; Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising director of activism Lauren Handy; and 89-year-old concentration camp survivor Eva Edl.

According to the legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom, "the DOJ brought at least 26 charges against pro-life individuals under the FACE Act in 2022. What were the total number of charges against abortion activists who obstructed or vandalized pro-life pregnancy centers in the wake of the Dobbs decision that year? Zero."

'Free Americans should never live in fear of their government targeting them because of their beliefs.'

The DOJ continued its lopsided application of the law the following year, revealing an institutional commitment to holding pro-lifers to a different standard from their violent counterparts.

The Daily Caller reported in July that from 1994 to 2024, there were 205 cases brought under the FACE Act against pro-life activists and only six brought against abortion activists; 55 of those cases were prosecuted during the Biden administration, only five of which reportedly concerned attacks on pregnancy resource centers.

Months after urging the House Appropriations Committee to bar the use of taxpayer funds for the enforcement of the FACE Act, Rep. Roy introduced legislation in September 2023 that would repeal the law. The FACE Act Repeal Act of 2023 found 47 sponsors in the House. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) subsequently introduced a companion bill in the U.S. Senate.

Roy stated at the time, "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."

"Our Constitution separates power between the federal government and the states for a reason, and we ignore that safeguard at our own peril," continued the Texas congressman. "The FACE Act is an unconstitutional federal takeover of state police powers; it must be repealed."

'Republicans are going to have to get the nerve to actually stand up.'

Lee noted in an X thread earlier this year, "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. How many prosecutions has Team Biden brought in the second category? Zero. Not even one."

"The FACE Act, it seems, is being used by DOJ to punish pro-life protesters but not their pro-abortion counterparts," wrote Lee. "In enacting the FACE Act, moreover, Congress relied on now difficult-to-defend readings of both the Commerce Clause and the Fourteenth 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."

Roy, who has repeatedly called for the the House GOP to take up his bill in the months since, told the Daily Signal this week, "Obviously, we need to move the bill forward, and it would be critical because of what we're seeing with respect to the persecution of Americans being put in jail."

"I think with the trifecta, we should be able to pass it," said Roy. "We should bring it forward. But look, Republicans are going to have to get the nerve to actually stand up for both free speech and life."

Although it is up to lawmakers to axe the FACE Act, President-elect Donald Trump suggested in a June 22 speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition that he will pardon peaceful pro-life activists such as Paulette Harlow upon taking office.

In May, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton-appointed judge who chastised a nun for daring to make the sign of the cross in court, sentenced Harlow to 24 months in prison. Harlow, an elderly woman suffering from a debilitating medical condition, was among the pro-life activists convicted for blocking access on Oct. 22, 2020, to the Washington Surgi-Clinic, operated by the late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo.

“Paulette is one of many peaceful pro-lifers who Joe Biden has rounded up, sometimes with SWAT teams, and thrown them in jail," said Trump. "Many people are in jail over this. … We're going to get that taken care of immediately — [on the] first day."

Trump noted further that upon taking office, his administration would "rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who's unjustly victimized by the Biden regime, including Paulette, so we can get them out of the gulags and back to their families where they belong."

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