WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's new Justice Department leadership issued an order Friday to curtail prosecutions against people accused of blocking reproductive rights facilities, calling the cases an example of the "weaponization" of law enforcement.
Justice Department chief of staff Chad Mizelle said in a memo that prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, will now be permitted only in "extraordinary circumstances" or in cases presenting "significant aggravating factors."
President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order Thursday relating to clemency for anti-abortion protesters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.
Mizelle also ordered the immediate dismissal of three civil FACE Act cases related to 2021 blockades of clinics in , and . One man was accused of obtaining "illegal access to a secure patient space at a Planned Parenthood facility in Philadelphia without staff permission or knowledge" and barricading himself in a restroom, according to court papers.
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"President Donald Trump campaigned on the promise of ending the weaponization of the federal government and has recently directed all federal departments and agencies to identify and correct the past weaponization of law enforcement," Mizelle wrote in the memo obtained by The Associated Press.
"To many Americans, prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act ('FACE Act') have been the prototypical example of this weaponization. And with good reason," he wrote.
In the first week of Trump’s presidency, anti-abortion advocates ramped up calls for Trump to pardon protesters charged with violating the , which is designed to protect abortion clinics from obstruction and threats.
The 1994 law was passed during a time where clinic protests and blockades were on the rise, as was , such as the murder of  in 1993.
Participants in the annual March for Life walk Friday from the Washington Monument to the Supreme Court in Washington.
During March of Life, Trump vows to support anti-abortion protesters
Friday's announcement came hours after Trump vowed to support tens of thousands of anti-abortion protesters at the March for Life, declaring in a prerecorded address that "We will again stand proudly for families and for life."
Vice President JD Vance, who spoke to the crowd in person, celebrated pardons for FACE Act defendants and called Trump "the most pro-life American president of our lifetimes."
Abortion was largely absent from the stack of dozens of  in Trump’s first days of office. But he already made quieter moves on abortion, including using wording related to  in an  rolling back protections for transgender people.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., celebrated these moves as evidence “this new White House is already showing its resolve.â€
“It is a new golden age for America,†Johnson told the crowd.
Anti-abortion activists Lauren Handy, front, with, from left, Terrisa Bukovinac, Jonathan Darnell and Randall Terry, speaks during an April 5, 2022, news conference in Washington.
Anti-abortion activists pardoned this week
A day earlier, Trump pardoned several anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances in violation of the FACE Act, which is designed to protect abortion clinics from obstruction and threats.
"They should not have been prosecuted," he said as he signed pardons for "peaceful pro-life protesters.â€
Those pardoned were involved in the  and blockade of a Washington clinic.
Lauren Handy was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for leading the blockade by directing blockaders to link themselves together with locks and chains to block the clinic’s doors. A nurse sprained her ankle when one person pushed her while entering the clinic, and a woman was accosted by another blockader while having labor pains, prosecutors said. Police found five fetuses in Handy’s home after she was indicted.
Trump pardoned Handy and her nine co-defendants: Jonathan Darnel of Virginia; Jay Smith, John Hinshaw and William Goodman, all of New York; Joan Bell of New Jersey; Paulette Harlow and Jean Marshall, both of Massachusetts; Heather Idoni of Michigan; and Herb Geraghty of Pennsylvania.
The city of Oakland opened the nation’s largest Planned Parenthood facility as California sees a marked increase in out-of-state patients.
Abortion rights advocates slammed Trump’s pardons as evidence of his opposition to abortion access, despite his  on the issue as he attempted to  on the campaign trail between anti-abortion allies and the  who support abortion rights.
Mizelle wrote that "more than 100 crisis pregnancy centers, pro-life organizations, and churches were attacked in the immediate aftermath" of the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that  and its nationwide abortion protections. Yet, nearly all of the prosecutions under the FACE Act were against anti-abortion protesters, he wrote.
