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The Biden administration resurrected a 1994 law against obstructing abortion clinics or religious worship to prosecute protesters, but now conservatives are seeking that the same policy be applied after leftist agitators crashed a Minneapolis church service.
The FACE Act, drafted by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., a noted Catholic, and signed by former President Bill Clinton, prohibits intentionally injuring or intimidating people seeking “reproductive care” services, and also has a section protecting people “exercising … religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”
Clinton also used his remarks signing the law to introduce his oft-cited view that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.”
“Enacting this bill to provide freedom of access to clinics has been a priority because protecting the freedoms of our citizens is surely chief among the responsibilities of the President of the United States,” Clinton added at the time. “This bill is designed to eliminate violence and coercion. It is not a strike against the First Amendment; far from it.”
The Biden Justice Department pursued FACE Act charges against dozens of people, which was seen as an uptick over prior administrations that all utilized the law.
Alliance Defending Freedom’s Erin Hawley testified before the House Judiciary Committee during that time saying: “Instead of applying the FACE Act in an even-handed way, the Biden DOJ has weaponized the Act to target pro-life advocates.”
The most-reported case was that of Mark Houck, a pro-life supporter from Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, who was arrested outside a Philadelphia abortion clinic following a run-in with an activist.
Houck often publicly prayed and tried to counsel people outside the center, and on that day in 2021, he was reportedly confronted by Bruce Love, an escort for an abortion patient.
According to a recounting by the Heritage Foundation’s Cully Stimson, Love previously encountered Houck multiple times and expressed vulgar slurs to him, when Houck “defended” his 12-year-old son from one of Love’s advances and the man fell.
Stimson noted that the case was “so weak” that Philadelphia County District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, declined to file any charges against Houck.
But, the FBI later raided Houck’s home, frightening his children, and he faced 11 years in prison and a $350,000 fine. Houck was ultimately acquitted.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has pardoned dozens of FACE Act convicts, including a priest and an 89-year-old Soviet concentration camp survivor arrested during a “blockade” of a Michigan center.
The pendulum has swung so far to the other side of the issue that conservatives are now citing the Biden administration’s use of the FACE Act against agitators who disrupted a Minneapolis church service, reportedly because one of the reverends is connected with a local ICE office.
PROMINENT CATHOLIC BISHOP SLAMS ANTI-ICE AGITATORS WHO DISRUPTED MN CHURCH SERVICE: ‘UNACCEPTABLE’
The Trump DOJ promptly opened an investigation into the incident, with Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon citing the FACE Act and saying she is reviewing “potential violations [of it] by these people desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers.”
“Any violation of federal law will be prosecuted,” added Attorney General Pam Bondi.
West Coast Baptist College president Paul Chappell called out a former CNN host who was featured among the protests, and called for the law to be enforced.
“We condemn the actions of Don Lemon and the group of activists who stormed Cities Church today in St. Paul, Minnesota, in clear violation of the FACE Act,” Chappell said in a statement.
“Christians everywhere should demand that the Department of Justice arrest those who participated. We must protect religious liberty in this country.”
Lemon later hosted anti-Trump actor D.L. Hughley and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on his podcast, where Ellison claimed the law was designed to “protect the rights of people seeking their reproductive rights to be protected …” and that the law was being “stretched” in the church case.
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Meanwhile, in March, Reps. Sean Casten, D-Ill., Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., urged Bondi to enforce the FACE Act in earnest, albeit citing the abortion services provision.
In response, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz condemned the agitators, with a spokesperson telling Fox News: “The governor has repeatedly and unequivocally urged protesters to do so peacefully. While people have a right to speak out, he in no way supports interrupting a place of worship.”
