The announcement comes hours after Trump made a pre-recorded address to tens of thousands of anti-abortion protesters at Friday’s March for Life.
President Donald Trump’s newly appointed leadership in the Justice Department has taken action to limit prosecutions of individuals who are charged with obstructing reproductive rights facilities. These cases are being viewed as an abuse of law enforcement power, according to a memo issued on Friday.
The chief of staff at the Justice Department, Chad Mizelle, stated in the memo that prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) will now only proceed in exceptional circumstances or when there are significant aggravating factors involved.
Additionally, Mizelle has directed the immediate dismissal of three civil cases related to the FACE Act, which were connected to blockades at clinics in Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Ohio in 2021. One case involved a man who allegedly gained unauthorized access to a secure patient area at a Planned Parenthood facility in Philadelphia, barricading himself in a restroom without the staff’s permission or knowledge, as stated in court documents.
“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.
The announcement comes hours after Trump vowed to support tens of thousands of anti-abortion protesters at Friday’s March for Life, declaring, “We will again stand proudly for families and for life” in a prerecorded address.
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.”
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.
Mizelle wrote that “more than 100 crisis pregnancy centers, pro-life organizations, and churches were attacked in the immediate aftermath” of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. Yet, nearly all of the prosecutions under the FACE Act have been against anti-abortion protesters, he wrote.
