Rep. Chip Roy Calls on GOP to Repeal Law Used to Throw Pro-Lifers in Prison

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) is calling on Republicans to repeal a federal law that the pro-abortion Biden administration has used to put pro-life activists behind bars.

Roy and Sen. Mike Lee introduced a bill in September of 2023 to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, contending at the time that “Biden’s Department of Justice has brazenly weaponized the FACE Act against normal everyday Americans across the political spectrum, simply because they are pro-life.” Roy further said he thinks the law is “an unconstitutional federal takeover of state police powers.”

“Obviously, we need to move the bill forward, and it would be critical because of what we’re seeing with respect to the persecution of Americans being put in jail,” Roy told The Daily Signal in an article published on Wednesday. 

“We’re after the election now, so I feel like we ought to put it out there this year. Go ahead and vote on it so that more Americans can’t get persecuted,” he added. “…I think with the trifecta, we should be able to pass it. We should bring it forward. But look, Republicans are going to have to get the nerve to actually stand up for both free speech and life.”

The FACE Act, which former President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994, prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain or provide reproductive health services.” The law is supposed to apply to pro-life pregnancy centers and churches, as well as abortion clinics.

While the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has admitted that most abortion-related violence after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade was perpetrated by pro-abortion activists, the DOJ has used the FACE Act to prosecute dozens of pro-life activists.

Between 1994 to 2024, there have been approximately 211 FACE Act cases — 205 of those cases have been brought against pro-life activists, while only six have been brought against pro-abortion activists, the Daily Caller reported in August, citing data provided by Roy’s office. Ultimately, the data shows that 97 percent of all FACE Act cases have been against pro-life activists since the law’s passage.

At least 55 FACE Act cases have been prosecuted during the Biden administration, only five of which involved pro-abortion attacks on pregnancy centers, the Daily Caller found, alleging the data “confirms conservative fears” of a “Biden weaponized justice system.”

“In less than four years, Biden’s DOJ has accounted for over a quarter of all FACE prosecutions and approximately 24 percent of cases targeting pro-life activists, the data demonstrates,” the report states.

Several of these cases have involved FBI raids of pro-life activists homes, the jailing of Christian grandmothers, and even the prosecution of an 87-year-old communist concentration camp survivor. Many of the cases involve peaceful protests outside of abortion facilities, sometimes accompanied by prayer and worship songs.

Some pro-life activists have been sentenced to years behind bars, including Progressive Anti Abortion Uprising (PAAU) activist Lauren Handy.

The DOJ has also specifically used a KKK-era law called “conspiracy against rights” with the aim of increasing prison time for pro-life activists accused of violating the FACE Act.

Thomas More Society Executive Vice President and general counsel Andrew Bath explained to Breitbart News earlier this year that he thinks the FACE Act is “no longer constitutional since the Supreme Court overturned the federal ‘right’ to abortion with its Dobbs decision.” Thomas More Society has notably represented several pro-life activists who have been charged with violating the FACE Act, including Lauren Handy and Catholic father of seven Mark Houck, who was found not guilty.

“Under our constitutional system of separation of powers, those powers known as the police powers are generally left to the states. There is no sweeping grant of police powers to the federal government under the Constitution,” Bath said.

“Congress believed it had the power to legislate in this area under the Fourteenth Amendment and the Commerce Clause,” he continued. “[Congress] said that because Roe v. Wade granted a right to abortion … found in the Fourteenth Amendment.”

“Well, [Dobbs] overturned Roe v. Wade. So that justification for passing the FACE Act is gone,” he added. “Now, it’s hanging by the narrow thread of the Commerce Clause. The FACE Act was passed in 1994, and the Supreme Court has developed its Commerce Clause jurisprudence quite a bit since 1994.”

Breitbart News senior legal contributor Ken Klukowski noted that the Commerce Clause “gives Congress power to regulate interstate commerce.”

“But there have been three major cases since 1994 that have narrowed the scope of that broad authority, leaving the FACE Act subject to a serious challenge on that front,” Klukowski explained.

Now-President elect Donald Trump notably pledged — in 2023 and again in 2024 — to create a task force to review and potentially pardon or commute the sentences of every “political prisoner who’s been unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration” if he is elected.

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.