CHICAGO (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Thursday he would pardon pro-life activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances.
Trump called it “a great honor to sign this.”
"They should not have been prosecuted," he said as he signed pardons for "peaceful pro-life protesters.”
Lauren Handy was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for leading the blockade of a Washington clinic. Trump pardoned Handy and her nine co-defendants: Jonathan Darnel of Virginia; Jay Smith, John Hinshaw and William Goodman, all of New York; Joan Bell of New Jersey; Paulette Harlow and Jean Marshall, both of Massachusetts; Heather Idoni of Michigan; and Herb Geraghty of Pennsylvania.
In the first week of Trump’s presidency, pro-life advocates have ramped up calls for Trump to pardon protesters charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
Trump specifically mentioned Harlow in a June speech criticizing former President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice for pursuing charges against protesters.
“Many people are in jail over this,” he said in June, adding, ”We’re going to get that taken care of immediately.”
SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser thanked Trump for “immediately delivering on his promise” to pardon the protesters, arguing their prosecutions were political.
The legal group Thomas More Society argued the FACE Act defendants they represent had been “unjustly imprisoned” in a January letter to Trump. The group had assured the defendants that Trump would review their cases and pardon them when he took office, according to the letter.
“Today, freedom rings in our great nation,” Steve Crampton, senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, said Thursday, adding, ”What happened to them can never be erased, but today’s pardons are a huge step towards restoring justice.”
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, among Trump’s most loyal supporters, called the prosecution of pro-life protesters “a grotesque assault on the principles of this country” and urged Trump to pardon them while reading the stories of such pro-life protesters on the Senate floor Thursday. He highlighted Eva Edl, who was involved in a 2021 Tennessee clinic blockade and whose story has garnered attention from the largest national pro-life groups.
Hawley said he “had a great conversation” Thursday morning with Trump about the protesters.
The news of the pardons comes ahead of Friday’s annual March for Life in Washington, where the president is expected to address the crowd in a video.