A conservative law firm is asking President-elect Donald Trump to pardon 21 pro-life activists prosecuted by the Biden administration when he returns to the White House next week.
Lawyers for the Thomas More Society have submitted formal requests to the new administration for “full and unconditional” pardons for nearly two dozen pro-life Americans who demonstrated at abortion facilities and was convicted on charges of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinics Act (FACE Act) and conspiracy against rights.
FACE law makes it a federal crime to use “threats of force, disruption, or damage to property with the intent to interfere with reproductive health care services.” President Biden’s Justice Department has used the 1994 law to aggressively prosecute pro-life activists since the fall of Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
The Thomas More Society petition calls on Trump to pardon Joan Bell, Coleman Boyd, Joel Curry, Jonathan Darnel, Eva Edl, Chester Gallagher, William Goodman, Dennis Green, Lauren Handy, Paulette Harlow, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall, Fr. . Fidelis Moscinski, Justin Phillips, Paul Place, Paul Vaughn, Bevelyn Beatty Williams, Calvin Zastrow, Eva Zastrow and James Zastrow.
The Thomas More Society has called on President-elect Donald Trump to pardon 21 pro-life activists when he takes office again next week. (AP Photo/Getty Images)
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“These peaceful pro-life Americans being bullied by Biden include grandparents, pastors, a Holocaust survivor, and a Catholic priest — all selfless, sincere patriots,” the petition’s cover letter reads.
“While Biden’s prosecutors almost entirely ignoring the bombing and vandalism of hundreds of pro-life churches and maternity centers, they have viciously persecuted pro-life Americans, obtaining convictions against them under the federal ‘FACE Act’ and the Ku Klux Klan Act’s ‘Conspiracy Against Rights’ felony provisions .”
“…Peaceful actions like these usually deserve, at worst, a minor misdemeanor conviction. And if they had opposed anything but abortion, Joe Biden would have given them medals—instead, Biden wanted them labeled ‘convicted felons’ and imprisoned for years in federal prison,” the letter continued.
Ten defendants received prison terms ranging from 10 months to 57 months for their involvement in the 2020 “blockade” of an abortion clinic in Washington. In May, Paulette Harlow, 75, was convicted a sentence of 2 years in prisonwhile Lauren Handy (30) was sentenced to almost five years in prison.
A pro-life demonstrator stands with her sign in front of EMW Women’s Surgical Center, an abortion clinic, on May 8, 2021 in Louisville, Kentucky. ((Photo: Jon Cherry/Getty Images))
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IN their letter to TrumpThomas More’s lawyers set out a legal rationale for why they believe the protesters’ convictions were “fatally wrong and patently unjust”.
The legal group also submitted 21 individual clemency petitions, which have not been made public, outlining the facts of each person’s case, their moral character and why they should be granted clemency.
“With these requests for presidential pardons for 21 peaceful pro-lifers, we urge President Trump to right the grievous wrongs of the Biden administration’s arming of the Justice Department,” said Steve Crampton, senior counsel to the Thomas More Society.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
“These 21 peaceful pro-lifers, many of whom are currently imprisoned for courageously standing up for unborn life, are upstanding citizens and pillars of their communities. By granting these pro-lifers a full and unconditional pardon, President Trump has an opportunity to repair the harm done to them and their families, fulfill his pre-election promises and restore trust in our constitutional order,” his statement continued.
Pro-life protesters in front of the Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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Trump criticized the Biden administration for prosecuting these pro-life protesters and signaled that he would consider pardoning them.
In September 2023 at the Pray Vote Stand Summit, Trump suggested he would consider pardoning pro-life protesters “unjustly persecuted” by the Biden administration.
“These Marxists and Stalinists in the administration got a jury in Washington, DC to convict five pro-life activists who now face up to 11 years in prison for simple acts of protest,” Trump said. “Under Biden, others have been sentenced to 10, 15, even 20 years in prison in retaliation for their political beliefs, while Antifa and other groups have burned down cities like Portland, like Minneapolis.”
He added: “To reverse these cruel travesties of justice tonight, I am announcing that as soon as I win the election, I will appoint a special task force to quickly review the cases of every political prisoner who has been unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration.”
Pro-life protesters listen to President Donald Trump as he speaks at the 47th annual “March for Life” in Washington, DC, January 24, 2020. Trump was the first sitting U.S. president to personally address the largest annual gathering of anti-abortion activists . (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
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Trump raised the issue again on at least two occasions in 2024.
At the Faith and Freedom Coalition last June, he specifically mentioned the case of 75-year-old Paulette Harlow.
“A lot of people are in jail because of this,” Trump said. “… We’ll take care of it right away [on the] first day.”
In February 2024, in a speech before National religious broadcasters in Nashville, Trump called the charges against protesters in the Tennessee case “outrageous” and vowed again to appoint a task force to review the cases of “any political prisoner who has been unfairly victimized by the Biden regime.”
