The FACE Act, passed in 1994, is a federal law that prohibits, among other things, the blocking of access to abortion clinics. According to the DOJ, the statute is intended to protect all patients, providers, and facilities that provide reproductive health services, “including pro-life pregnancy counseling services and any other pregnancy support facility providing reproductive health care.” The law also protects freedom of access to houses of worship.
The FACE Act has been in the news recently because of a number of high-profile indictments of nonviolent pro-life protestors. Philadelphia pro-life leader and father of seven Mark Houck was indicted by a federal grand jury Sept. 23 after a Planned Parenthood clinic escort alleged that Houck pushed him twice, causing him to fall to the ground both times. Later in September, Father Fidelis Moscinski, 52, a priest of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, was charged under the FACE Act for a nonviolent July protest during which he padlocked an abortion clinic’s gate shut. And in early October, 11 people were indicted under the FACE Act for their actions during a pro-life protest in March 2021.
The arrests and indictments of pro-life protestors throw into stark relief the fact that there is no evidence of FBI investigations or DOJ prosecutions related to the rise in violence directed at pro-life people and institutions since May 2022.
CNA has recorded nearly 100 abortion-motivated attacks against churches, pregnancy centers, and other entities in the United States since the May 2 leak of a draft opinion showing that the U.S. Supreme Court was about to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the question of abortion legalization to the states.
“[T]here have been no reports of FBI investigations or DOJ prosecutions” in relation to those attacks, the letter says — “[H]einous, violent, and organized crimes across state lines that are also subject to prosecution under the FACE Act.”
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