Chip Roy leads House Republicans in effort to repeal law used by Biden administration to prosecute pro-lifers

FIRST ON FOX: More than 20 House Republicans are backing a bill that would repeal the law used by former President Biden’s administration to prosecute dozens of pro-life activists.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is leading the effort to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE Act, which Republicans argue has been selectively invoked to target pro-lifers who have protested outside of abortion clinics. He shared data his office obtained from the Justice Department under Attorney General Merrick Garland that showed 97% of FACE Act prosecutions in the last 20 years were against abortion opponents. 

“Americans just spent the last four years being targeted by a weaponized justice system. The FACE Act was one of the primary weapons of abuse – being used to politically target, arrest, and jail pro-life Americans for speaking out and standing up for life,” Roy said in a statement. 

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“Now that we have a Republican trifecta in the House, Senate, and White House, Congress should move quickly to repeal this law and ensure that no future president can weaponize it against pro-lifers ever again.” 

The FACE Act makes it a federal crime to use “threats of force, obstruction or inflict property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services.” The 1994 law has been used by President Biden’s Justice Department to aggressively prosecute pro-life activists since the fall of Roe v. Wade, a landmark abortion rights case, in June 2022.

It has rarely been used against those who have attacked pro-life organizations and pregnancy resource centers. According to Roy’s office, there have been at least 90 such attacks since May 2022, when draft text from the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade leaked to the public. The Biden administration prosecuted only five individuals for attacks on pro-life facilities, while many incidents targeting Catholic churches and pro-life centers were never prosecuted.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is seen outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

In contrast, FACE Act prosecutions of pro-life activists like Mark Houck, who was later acquitted, inflamed the right and prompted accusations that the…