Biden Administration Continues Crackdown On Pro-Life Protesters With New Lawsuit

The Biden administration continued its crackdown on pro-lifer protesters this week as it announced a lawsuit against two pro-life organizations and seven pro-life activists. 

The lawsuit accuses the pro-lifers of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act during two protests at abortion facilities in Ohio in June 2021. If convicted, the defendants could face tens of thousands of dollars in fines. 

“Obstructing people from accessing reproductive health care and physically obstructing providers from offering it are unlawful,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Congress passed the FACE Act 30 years ago this month in response to acts of violence, threats of violence and physical obstruction at reproductive health clinics in our country.” 

The defendants include the organizations Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and Red Rose Rescue as well as Laura Gies, Lauren Handy, Clara McDonald, Monica Miller, Christopher Moscinski, Jay Smith, and Audrey Whipple.

The charges stem from protests at Northeast Ohio Women’s Center (NOWC) in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, on June 4, 2021, and at Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio’s Bedford Heights Surgery Center (BHSC) in Bedford Heights, Ohio.

During the protests, the defendants went in and around the abortion facilities where they sat, laid down, and kneeled in front of doors and walkways. They also urged women coming to the abortion centers to not get abortions.  The protesters were eventually arrested by police and booked for trespassing. 

The criminal complaint says that Gies, before her participation in the protest at the Northeast Ohio Women’s Center, previously discussed how she wanted abortion providers shut down. “God wins when an abortion clinic cannot operate,” she said according to the Justice Department. 

The Justice Department said that the defendants could be given fines of up to $20,516 for the first violations of the FACE ACT  and up to $30,868 for later violations. Biden’s DOJ also asked for the defendants to be required to pay $5,000 in damages to people harmed by the alleged criminal actions. 

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Handy, one of the defendants, was sentenced last week to nearly five years in prison over her role in a protest at a Washington, D.C., abortion facility in October 2020. She was given 57 months in prison and three years of supervised release after she was convicted on charges of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and conspiracy against rights. 

Biden’s DOJ has repeatedly targeted peaceful pro-lifers for prosecution under the FACE Act in places from Tennessee to Michigan to D.C. Several pro-lifers face up to 11 years in prison due to a conspiracy against rights charge that has been tacked on to the FACE Act violations.