Anti-abortion protesters will gather outside Atlanta’s Priority Women’s Health Center in Forest Park in July 2023 (Photo: Roth Williams/Georgia Recorder)
Republican efforts to repeal federal laws banning violence against reproductive clinics and places of worship gained support from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, and now headed to the full home for consideration.
That’s the law for freedom of access to the clinic entrance. Passed by the parliament A year after an anti-abortion activist shot and killed Dr. David Gunn, director of an abortion clinic three times in 1994. Six months later, Dr. George Tiller was also shot by anti-abortion activists outside his clinic in Kansas. Tiller survived that attempt in his life, but he was killed 15 years later by another anti-abortion activist.
Signed by then-democratic President Bill Clinton, the law made it a federal crime to use or threaten or otherwise physically obstruct people from obtaining or providing reproductive care. This includes abortion clinics and crisis pregnancy centers. This usually takes the anti-abortion view when counselling a patient. It also protects places of religious worship from similar types of lockdowns and violence.
Roev in 2022. The clinic’s call for protest has resurrected after the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Wade and overturn President Donald Trump’s reelection two years later. Trump’s administration has also been issued Federal pardon At least 23 people have been convicted of violating the law. In January, the Justice Department said it would no longer enforce violations of the law, except in the most extreme cases, such as murder or serious property damage.
“They essentially put the statute in administrative restraint jackets, so Maga can give legislative guillotines in Congress,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin of D-Maryland and ranking members of the House Judiciary Committee during the hearing. “This administration is sending out unsettling signals regarding violence against women.”
R-Texas Rep. Chip Roy introduced it House Bill 589 In January, the Face Act was weaponized. In particular, against anti-abortion protesters by the former Democratic president Joe Biden administration after the 2022 US Supreme Court decision. The law has also been surprisingly referenced several times in Project 2025, a blueprint document created by the conservative advocacy group, Heritage Foundation. The document did not seek complete repeal, but said it would need to be reviewed instead. Roy appeared at a Heritage Foundation event in March, vowing to fight for the bill to be heard.
It was passed by 13-10 votes in line with the party’s policy after about two hours of debate on Tuesday.
Roy knew it would be heatedly debated and considered political, but he made it clear that he had reservations and concerns about excessive criminalization in general, saying he wanted to generate federal crimes from such issues.
He also said he spoke about using the law for his own purposes, such as defending the church, and admitted that he was pushed back by people within Trump’s administration.
“That’s not my goal,” Roy said at the hearing. “My goal is to reduce politicization in the first place.”
Roy and other Republicans on the committee said the Biden administration targeted a “little old lady” who had been put in prison for praying outside an abortion clinic, but the woman he referenced was charged in connection with a group of people who blocked two clinic doors with bodies, furniture, chains and ropes. The woman’s own lawyer said it was not accurate to describe her activities as just praying. Fact checks from Reuters.
Between 1977 and 2009, the National Abortion Federation counted 41 bombings among nine murders, 17 attempted murders, 179 cases of assault or battery against a clinic worker, and vandalism, arson and bomb threats at clinics. Abortion prevention group that has started AS Operation Rescue Throughout the 1986, activists sometimes blocked doors with equipment and parked cars as they led the movement to block access to abortion clinics.
“When face acts are in place, it is an effective and important tool to keep abortion providers and their patients safe,” Julie Gonen, Chief Justice Secretary of the National Federation of Abortions, said in an emailed statement. “It’s pointless to see opposing legislators trying to repeal the laws that have kept people safe for decades.”
Rep. Tom McClintock of R-California is the only Republican on the committee and said he does not support a complete abolition. He agreed that the law was “abused” by the Biden administration, but that was not a reason to repeal the law and should be amended to strengthen its enforcement instead.
Rep. Harriet Hageman, one of two Republican women on the House Committee, of Wyoming, is the co-sponsor of the bill and said that the previous Democratic administration would ignore “real terrorism” once it takes place.
“It has become another tool in the anti-life, anti-human and anti-American toolkit based on allowing things unacceptable and giving them respect for life,” Hageman said. “As a result, it’s time for it to go and I support the abolition of faces.”
Several Democrats, including Pennsylvania Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, opposed the bill. She said everyone should condemn political violence committed everywhere, but by abolishing the face, Republicans invite anti-abortion extremists to use the threat of violence and threats to block access to abortion care everywhere.
“No one should be denied medical care because of someone else’s religious or political beliefs. Everyone deserves freedom to provide or seek appropriate medical care without a threat to safety,” Scanlon said.
