The Biden administration colluded with abortion activists to target and prosecute religious, pro-life organizations, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
On Tuesday, the DOJ published an explosive, 800-page report exposing the selective enforcement of a federal law against life-affirming groups, while ignoring increasing violence against pro-life pregnancy centers.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act includes language protecting religious institutions, including churches, as well as abortion centers and pregnancy resource centers.
The Justice Department’s “Weaponization Working Group”—a team created under the Trump administration to examine whether federal law was used in a biased or politically motivated way—reviewed more than 700,000 internal communications, case files and prosecutorial decisions tied to enforcement of the FACE Act.
During the Biden administration, First Liberty Institute represented several pro-life pregnancy care centers that suffered threats, violence and property damage following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, which properly returned the power to regulate abortion back to the states.
“The Biden administration’s selective enforcement of the FACE Act was an unconscionable abuse of power,” said Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel at First Liberty. “Unequally applying the law denied justice to our clients and undermined our republic.”
“Worse, deploying the FACE Act as a means of political cover is an admission that the Biden administration could have done more to protect Americans nationwide,” he added. “Instead, the Biden DOJ chose politics over justice. We are grateful to the current Department of Justice for revealing this injustice and hope it will take immediate steps to ensure it never happens again.”
“Though the FACE Act was supposed to protect both pro-choice and pro-life facilities,” the report explains, “Biden DOJ senior leadership and Task Force Members provided extensive support to abortion clinics, yet the Biden DOJ often ignored and downplayed vandalism and attacks against pregnancy resource centers or houses of worship.”
Additionally, Biden’s DOJ “affirmatively asked the abortion groups about pro-life individuals’ travel and constitutionally protected advocacy.” It also collaborated with pro-abortion organizations to create files containing “personally identifying information, such as addresses, photographs (including of spouses and minor children), names of associates and affiliated ministries, information about their upcoming travel plans or planned protests, and even drivers’ license numbers.”
First Liberty fought a federal court case for Heartbeat of Miami, a ministry providing services and support to women and couples facing unplanned pregnancies in Hialeah, Florida. Their facility was vandalized multiple times. We won that case alongside former Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. The vandals associated with a group called Jane’s Revenge who sought to injure, intimidate and interfere with access were held accountable for their crimes.
And although we successfully litigated that case, the Biden DOJ’s selective prosecution of the arsonists and vandals that attacked pro-life reproductive health facilities denied justice to many others.
The Trump administration has already taken steps to rectify the injustices of its predecessor. President Trump pardoned 23 pro-life Americans who were arrested, convicted and imprisoned during Biden-era prosecutions.
The Trump DOJ also dismissed three Biden-era civil lawsuits against “non-violent pro-life demonstrators and issued a directive that, moving forward, DOJ prosecutors may only bring FACE Act civil actions and prosecutions in extraordinary circumstances or in cases presenting significant aggravating factors.”
“This Department will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice,” Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “No Department should conduct selective prosecution based on beliefs. The weaponization that happened under the Biden administration will not happen again, as we restore integrity to our prosecutorial system.”
