It should go without saying that the First Amendment freedoms of conscience, religion, and speech are foundational to our constitutional order. The more these rights are eroded, the faster we will find ourselves on a path toward the type of political and social decay afflicting so much of Western Europe.
This should be a completely bipartisan position. Unfortunately, the Left’s growing hostility to people of faith – and particularly, to Christians who oppose abortion – has created an environment in which progressive politicians feel empowered to trample upon the First Amendment rights of pro-life individuals and organizations.
Thankfully, President Trump is prioritizing the protection of conscience rights and is taking long-overdue actions to address the many abuses of the previous Administration. A new report by the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group has revealed the full extent of the Biden Administration’s efforts to undermine the First Amendment rights of pro-life Americans. An extensive review of internal records confirms that the Biden Justice Department systematically weaponized the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act against pro-life Americans – an outrage that the ACLJ has fought for years to expose.
The findings of the report are damning: showing that the Biden DOJ worked with pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood to monitor and target pro-life activists with legal harassment; sought significantly harsher sentences for pro-life defendants than pro-abortion defendants; and ignored or downplayed violent attacks on faith-based Pregnancy Resource Centers.
Since the Supreme Court struck down the constitutionally factitious Roe v. Wade decision, progressives have intensified their persecution of pro-life activists and organizations, as well as the Pregnancy Resource Centers that provide ultrasounds and other services that encourage women to bring their pregnancies to term. Ironically, the people who never stop shouting about “choice” apparently do not want women to have the opportunity to do just that if it means choosing life.
The collusion between the Justice Department – an arm of the Executive branch tasked with the fair and impartial administration of justice to all Americans – with pro-abortion activists against their ideological foes flies in the face of the DOJ’s mission, and the animating spirit of our Constitution. This doesn’t just compromise the rights of pro-life Americans – it opens the door for future abuses by government officials of all political and ideological stripes.
As a person of faith and as an American, I am grateful to the current Administration for doing the necessary to defend the First Amendment liberties of pro-life Americans. We cannot have a country in which the government treats our constitutional rights as conditional, or as favors to be granted to preferred political constituencies rather than God-given liberties.
But the fight doesn’t stop here. While we can hope that the legal remedies being pursued by the Trump DOJ will chill future efforts to engage in this type of behavior, there can be little doubt that pro-abortion activists will continue to use their power within the increasingly radical far-Left base to push for these tactics to continue. I give thanks every day for organizations like the ACLJ, which are truly doing the Lord’s work to ensure that these anti-constitutional, anti-faith zealots do not prevail.
