Steve Crampton, who serves as senior counsel at the Thomas More Society and as Vaughn’s attorney, said he is “pleased the judge has shown leniency” to his client but accused President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice of weaponizing the FACE Act “against its ideological opponents.”
“The weaponized and evidence-free charges brought here by the Biden Department of Justice against peaceful pro-lifers should have never been filed,” Crampton said. “The event for which the Biden Department of Justice targeted Paul and his fellow pro-lifers was a peaceful demonstration by entirely peaceable citizens — filled with prayer, hymn-singing, and worship — and oriented toward persuading expecting mothers not to abort their babies.”
Vaughn was one of 11 pro-life activists convicted of FACE Act violations for the demonstration at the Mt. Juliet abortion clinic. One of the activists, Caroline Davis, took a plea deal and testified against her fellow activists — she received three years of probation. The other activists, who did not take plea deals, could face up to 10 and a half years in prison.
Under the Biden administration, pro-life activists were also charged with FACE Act violations for a protest at an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C., in October 2022. The longest sentence was given to Lauren Handy, who received more than four and a half years in prison. Several other activists received more than one year in prison.
Less than two weeks ago, former President Donald Trump — the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2024 U.S. presidential election — criticized the prosecution of pro-life activists and said if he is elected again, he will “get them out of the gulags and back to their families where they belong.”
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