Pro-life advocates testify to alleged FACE Act abuses

Paul Vaughn, who faced prosecution under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, told members of the House Judiciary Committee during a Wednesday hearing that authorities have wielded the law unfairly against pro-life advocates. The act criminalizes efforts to block patients or workers from entering medical clinics or abortion facilities. It also protects churches and pro-life pregnancy centers. Since its passage in 1994, the U.S. Department of Justice has used the law to convict dozens of pro-life activists.

Vaughn is a Tennessee husband and pro-life father of 11. Over the summer, he was sentenced to three years of supervised release in connection with a 2021 demonstration at an abortion facility. Vaughn has insisted that his activism consisted solely of prayer, singing, and sidewalk counseling—trying to convince pregnant mothers walking into an abortion facility to choose life—as well as advising police on the intentions of the demonstrators who planned to be peacefully arrested. A federal jury in January convicted him and five other activists each of a misdemeanor charge of violating the FACE Act, as well as a felony charge of conspiracy against rights.

What did others tell lawmakers about the FACE Act? Erin Hawley, senior counsel and vice president of the nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom, told lawmakers Wednesday that the Department of Justice has disproportionately enforced the act against pro-life advocates. She went on to accuse the department of consistently failing to enforce the FACE Act against individuals who have attacked pro-life centers. Additionally, she said the DOJ in recent years has been charging nonviolent pro-life demonstrators with an additional conspiracy to affect rights charge—a federal felony that carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

Thomas More Society lawyer Steve Crampton told lawmakers that the FACE Act represents a federal overreach into a matter better left to state authorities. He went on to call for its repeal.

What did pro-abortion advocates have to say? Jessica Waters, a professor at American University, came to the defense of the FACE Act. She argued that it criminalizes certain conduct—not speech—and insisted that it only criminalized that conduct when it affects an individual’s ability to seek out services at the protected facilities. She said the law was necessary to counter an increase in violence at abortion facilities, as well as a reluctance by some members of law enforcement to curtail it.

Dig deeper: Read Leah Savas’ report about how a mother and a nurse teamed up to save an unborn child from a chemical abortion using progesterone therapy.