TALLAHASSEE (LifeSiteNews) — Florida Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier has announced that his office and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) secured three guilty pleas and one guilty verdict for four pro-abortion radicals who vandalized a pro-life pregnancy center, using a federal law the Biden administration made famous for weaponizing against pro-lifers.
The Daily Wire reports that state and federal prosecutors took action against the activists, members of Antifa and Jane’s Revenge, for “unlawfully threaten[ing] employees of a Florida pregnancy resource facility.” The DOJ brought criminal charges while Florida brought civil suits, both under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The one who did not take a plea was forced to pay a $10,000 fine.
“As a result of our civil action, the federal court enjoined the defendants from coming within 100 feet of the seven pregnancy resource centers at issue in our lawsuit for the next ten years, entered a judgement for each defendant to pay fines ranging from $1,100 to $13,000, and directed them to apologize to the crisis pregnancy facilities for their wrongful acts,” Uthmeier said.
“We in Florida will not sit idly by when thugs attempt to threaten, intimidate and harass pro-life facilities who offer life-saving healthcare free of charge to Florida women,” he added. “As the State’s chief legal officer, I will ensure that pro-abortion bullies who violate the law will be held accountable.”
Enacted in 1994, the FACE Act ostensibly protects access to facilities run by both pro-life and pro-abortion organizations, including abortion facilities, pro-life pregnancy centers, and churches. However, conservatives criticized the Department of Justice under the Biden administration for weaponizing the act to prosecute pro-life advocates while only a handful of pro-abortion vandals have been arrested following a string of attacks on churches and pro-life centers in the wake of the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Among the most egregious Biden prosecutions were 23 pro-lifers prosecuted by the Biden Justice Department for entering abortion centers and refusing to leave and who received prison time despite several of them being elderly with medical issues. Also concerning was the case of Mark Houck, a Philadelphia pro-lifer whom the DOJ prosecuted under the FACE Act after being arrested in a morning FBI raid for a physical altercation with a hostile abortion supporter that local authorities had already dismissed. Houck was acquitted in January 2023; President Donald Trump pardoned the 23 others in his first week back in office.
But while the Florida example illustrates that the FACE Act can be applied to actual crimes to protect legitimate life-affirming services, and Trump has instructed DOJ to abide by strict new limits on when the FACE Act should be invoked, many pro-lifers believe the FACE Act must still be repealed entirely, arguing that localities can handle local crime on their own and that the danger of a future pro-abortion president abusing the law again is too great.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) has reintroduced legislation to repeal the FACE Act in the House of Representatives and says he is prepared to force a vote on it if necessary.
