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Pro-life activist speaks out

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WORLD Radio - Pro-life activist speaks out

Paul Vaughn reflects on his FACE Act arrest and ongoing pro-life work


Paul and Bethany Vaughn Photo courtesy of The Thomas More Society

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday, the 6th of February.

This is WORLD Radio. Thanks for listening! Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

First up on The World and Everything in It: freedom at last.

*** President Donald Trump pardoned nearly two dozen pro-lifers during his first week in office. Some faced sentences of up to ten years for blocking access to abortion businesses.

Individual cases vary in the details— one protester received a three year sentence for livestreaming the effort. Another now pardoned person is an 89 year old woman.

TRUMP: Twenty-three people were prosecuted. They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this.

BROWN: One of those pardoned is Paul Vaughn. He was convicted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, passed in 1994. It makes it a felony to use, quote, “threats of force, obstruction or inflict property damage intended to interfere with reproductive healthcare services.”

REICHARD: Paul Vaughn received the good news of a pardon during a press conference with his lawyers and he joins us now. Paul, good morning!

Can you walk us through what led to your particular arrest under the FACE Act?

PAUL VAUGHN: Well sure is, I guess, a complicated issue at law. But we were at an event in March of 2021 and just a normal pro life event. We had sidewalk counseling teams out. I did not participate in the FACE activities, but we were doing sidewalk counseling and talking to people. I spent a lot of time talking with the police and, you know, babies were saved. A handful of people were arrested for sitting at the door, for criminal trespass, I think, was the official charge.

Fast forward 18 months later, and you know, I get the black booted Gestapo raid at my house, arrested at gunpoint in front of my children, with never having even heard that I was under investigation or did anything wrong. I wasn't arrested the day of the event. And, the FBI shows up with guns drawn, and that was my, you know, first exposure to and knowing that I was under investigation, I guess.

REICHARD: What personal or religious beliefs motivate you?

VAUGHN: I spent 10 years running from God, angry at God, and he had poured out an abundant amount of grace to intervene in my life and turn my life around. And so it's just that. It's just literally going and trying to be the hands and feet of our Creator to people that he created, that are in need and in a dire circumstance, in a tough situation.

REICHARD: Now did you believe at the time that you were violating the law?

VAUGHN: Oh, not at all. No, I actually, I mean, after 30 years, I was pretty well informed on the boundaries of the federal law and FACE law. And in fact, that was basically what I was I was informing the police officers, you know, kind of where the boundaries were on trespass and who, when somebody trespassed, who can legally ask the person to leave? Because you know you can't, the police just can't come arrest you for being on somebody else's property. For all they know you have permission to be there.So the expectation would be that you'd have, you know, the business, you'd have rights to be there and and so I ended up helping the police in that sense, I wanted to make sure they understood this was a peaceful group. They had Bibles, not bricks, and, you know, they they were going to be compliant and peaceful.

REICHARD: Now I know the FBI showed up unannounced at your house. How did the authorities treat you during and after your arrest?

VAUGHN: Well, the whole thing was a circus. The fact of the matter is, the way the FBI came in out of our local Nashville office, arrested me at gunpoint in front of my wife and children. They never presented a warrant, never presented any identification other than their little Velcro badge and and so we were treated very poorly and a gross amount of excessive force in the arrest itself. I had no idea how, how corrupt our judicial system had become. But having seen it firsthand, it needs some help.

REICHARD: Paul, did you spend time in jail?

VAUGHN: I did not, other than the day where I was arrested, processed in and held in the federal holding facility. You know, throughout that day, until I was arraigned, I did not spend any time behind bars. I was six months house arrest, and then I got off house arrest, January 2 and January 23’s when the pardon came down. And basically I had two and a half years of probation left, having already served two years of probation through the process as the punishment from the time of the arrest. Mary, this is something people don't understand as well— is we, we were we had to report to parole. I had to submit monthly financials. I had, I was restrained to the Middle District of Tennessee. I couldn't travel or go anywhere without permission from the government and and so in a normal Christian marriage, you have a husband and a wife, you have your children, and that's what you do make decisions with. But for two over two years, we had the husband and the wife and a federal agent making decisions for my family and and that's an egregious abridgment of freedom and of liberty and the principles that our nation is founded on.

REICHARD: Do you regret your actions, or would you do it again?

VAUGHN: Oh, absolutely, there's no regret I was telling our our church group this week, that I'm absolutely, 100% certain that I was where God wanted me, that he's orchestrated these events, they weren't of my own making, and, and that he's telling a story that he likes to tell, and, and he's he's good at telling the story, so we're just trying to be faithful to the narrative and see where he takes us.

REICHARD: Finally, what’s next for you? Do you plan to continue advocating on this?

VAUGHN: Sure, well, we have a unique circumstance here in Tennessee. We no longer have surgical abortion clinics, Tennessee has outlawed abortion. There's still a nationwide issue. There's still the heart of the people, right? There's still people that will end up in unwanted pregnancies and have crisis, and will need ministry and help, and to that extent, we're going to find ways to try to help them. And there's still chemical abortions. And so we are working with Personhood Alliance and other national groups and looking at ways we can help have good laws that produce freedom and help those in need and try to encourage them as well.

REICHARD: Paul Vaughn, thank you for talking with WORLD today.

VAUGHN: Thank you, Mary, good to be with you.


*** EDITORS NOTE: In the audio story we mistakenly say that Trump pardoned Paul Vaughn on "day one." It was actually on day four.


WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.

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