Among President Trump’s first-week actions was the rectification of an injustice committed by the Biden administration. Progressives may be soft on crime, but the Biden-Garland Justice Department proved willing to be tough, even sadistic, on pro-lifers. People who interfered with access to abortion clinics were tossed around the courts and into prison as if they were members of a violent racketeering outfit.
The department sought absurdly long sentences under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, seeking to imprison for eleven years anti-abortion activists Jean Marshall and Joan Bell. That’s more years in prison than can be legally given for arson or aggravated assault in D.C. The DOJ deliberately blurred the line between protesting in front of clinics and obstructing them, to give a special and unnecessary protection to abortion clinics from acts of free speech.
Even the Obama administration had not engaged in this kind of prosecutorial overkill. In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, however, Biden was eager to demonstrate that he was doing everything in his power to support abortion.
Now Trump has appropriately pardoned the victims of this abuse. Even better, Trump is seeking to limit the application of the FACE Act to truly extraordinary instances in which violence is threatened. The guidance going forward stipulates that cases that don’t present these aggravating factors are to be handled by local law enforcement, if any laws apply at all.
Trump has given pro-lifers some reason for nervousness, but these early decisions deserve to be cheered.