US President Donald Trump has pardoned 23 anti-abortion activists, including some convicted of blocking a reproductive health clinic and intimidating staff and patients.
The pardons were part of a round of executive orders Trump signed Thursday, one of several in the first week of his presidency.
Trump described the conviction as “ridiculous,” but abortion rights campaigners said the move was evidence of his opposition to access to abortion.
The orders came a day before anti-abortion protesters were scheduled to descend on Washington DC for the annual March for Life, which the president is scheduled to address VideoLink.
In 2020, Trump became the first sitting president to attend the rally in person, although George W Bush and Ronald Reagan also addressed it remotely.
Vice President JD Vance will attend in person this time.
The rally has been held in the US capital every year since 1974, the year after Abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court in Roe V Wade.
Abortion rights have been a key issue in recent presidential races, and the court overturned the ruling in 2022.
In signing the pardon, Trump said of the activists: “They shouldn’t have been prosecuted. A lot of them are elderly people … it’s a great honor for him to sign it. They’re going to be very happy.”
American media reports that one of those pardoned is Lauren Handy, the leader of the progressive group Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU).
The group was convicted of conspiring in 2020 to storm a Washington reproductive health clinic and block access to intimidate patients and staff. The members forced their way into the medical clinic, injured a nurse and spent several hours inside.
Handy was found guilty in August 2023 and sentenced in May 2024.
Her supporters welcomed the pardons, saying the beliefs were political.
The president of Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said the protesters targeted Joe Biden’s Justice Department and thanked Trump for “immediately following through on his promise” to pardon them.
But abortion rights activists said the pardons confirmed their belief that Trump is anti-abortion, despite saying during his presidential campaign that it was up to individual states to allow the practice.
Ryan Stitzlein of the national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All told the AP news agency: “Donald Trump on the campaign trail has tried to have it both ways — bragging about his role in overturning Roe v Wade while saying he won’t take action for an abortion.
“We never believed it to be true, and this shows us that we were right.”
