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When former president Joe Biden granted pardons and commutations to thousands of people in the waning days of his administration, even some of his fellow Democrats were taken aback—not just at the sheer number of those set free, but that the president extended clemency to a number of violent criminals and murderers, including many convicted of brutally abusing and killing young children.
The depth of those crimes cannot legitimately be compared to those of anyone President Donald Trump has pardoned since he took office. Most notable are the 23 men and women prosecuted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act that Trump pardoned on January 23. Among those released: grandparents, mothers of young children, pastors, a Holocaust survivor, and a Catholic priest—all prosecuted and convicted by the Biden administration for their nonviolent protests at abortion facilities.
That decidedly unthreatening lineup gives some sense of how justice—or, more accurately, injustice—worked under the previous administration. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, the federal government allowed over 500 cases of vandalism and arson against pregnancy care centers and churches to pass without prosecution. The FACE Act is supposed to protect all reproductive health services and places of worship from violence, vandalism, and intimidation, but the Biden Department of Justice was only interested in protecting abortions.
As I testified before Congress in my role with Alliance Defending Freedom, the Biden administration effectively weaponized the FACE Act against pro-life viewpoints. Of the 55 defendants charged under the law, 50 were pro-life. And of the 24 cases actually prosecuted, only two were in defense of pregnancy care centers. The Biden Justice Department did not prosecute a single one of the 436 attacks on churches that took place in 2023 alone.
In addition, Biden officials were urged to seek the longest prison sentences possible for pro-life advocates, no matter how peaceful their protests. The Justice Department complied by coupling FACE Act violations, for the first time, with charges of "conspiracy against rights"—a felony that comes with a potential 10-year prison sentence.
Among those caught in that prosecutorial net was Eva Edl, 89 years old and a survivor of a communist concentration camp. For sitting at the entrance of an abortion facility in her wheelchair, praying and singing hymns, she faced a sentence of up to 11 years—as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
The Biden Department of Justice's aggressiveness and cruelty weren't limited to the courtroom. More than a year after taking part in a nonviolent protest, Paul Vaughn was arrested at gunpoint during an early morning raid of his home, with FBI agents pointing automatic weapons at him and separately detaining several of his children.
Both Vaughn and Edl were among those Trump pardoned.
In a subsequent memo issued on January 24, the Trump administration made sure that the FACE Act would no longer be weaponized against pro-life viewpoints. The memo—written by Chad Mizelle, chief of staff to Pam Bondi, Trump's pick for attorney general—limits future FACE Act prosecutions to incidents involving "extraordinary circumstances" or "significant aggravating factors." The Justice Department also dismissed with prejudice three ongoing prosecutions of nonviolent pro-life activists under the FACE Act, related to 2021 blockades of abortion facilities in Tennessee, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
What's more, Trump revived two additional crucial pro-life policies designed to curtail taxpayer-supported abortions. First, he signed an executive order directing his administration to enforce the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal taxpayer funding for abortion. He also reinstated the "Mexico City policy," which blocks international organizations that provide and promote abortion from receiving U.S. government funding.
"For nearly five decades, the Congress has annually enacted the Hyde Amendment and similar laws that prevent Federal funding of elective abortion, reflecting a longstanding consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for that practice," the order reads. "However, the previous administration disregarded this established, commonsense policy by embedding forced taxpayer funding of elective abortions in a wide variety of Federal programs."
"It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion."
As if this wasn't enough, the Trump administration has also sent word via the U.S. Mission to the United Nations that the U.S. is rejoining the Geneva Consensus Declaration, of which the U.S. was a founding member. A coalition of 40 governments united around a pro-life policy stance are signatories to the declaration.
All of these actions dovetail beautifully with the new administration's outspoken respect for the health of women and unborn life—a respect both President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance underlined in remarks to the thousands gathered on the bitterly cold National Mall for the 52nd Annual March for Life on the same day the orders were issued.
"I know your hearts are warm and your spirits are strong," President Trump said, "because your mission is just very, very pure: to forge a society that welcomes and protects every child as a beautiful gift from the hand of our Creator."
"America is fundamentally a pro-baby, a pro-life, and a pro-family country," Vice President Vance added—a view clearly at odds with that of the previous administration, but one that echoes the Founders' vision of a nation where life and liberty are both regarded as the "unalienable rights" of all people.
And one that allows not only pro-life advocates, but countless others, to enjoy equal protection under the law.
Erin Hawley is senior counsel and vice president of the Center for Life at Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal).
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
