Trump: 'Great Honor' to Pardon 23 Anti-abortion Activists

President Donald Trump on Thursday pardoned 23 anti-abortion activists, a day before the annual "March for Life" in Washington, D.C.

"Twenty-three people were prosecuted," Trump said in a signing ceremony that aired lived on Newsmax and the Newsmax2 online streaming platform. "They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people. They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this."

Several groups, including the Thomas More Society, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and Americans United for Life, petitioned Trump to issue the pardons.

"Today, freedom rings in our great nation," said Steve Crampton, senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, which petitioned for 21 activists to be pardoned, in a news release. "The heroic peaceful pro-lifers unjustly imprisoned by Biden’s Justice Department will now be freed and able to return home to their families, eat a family meal, and enjoy the freedom that should have never been taken from them in the first place."

The activists were prosecuted by the Biden administration's Department of Justice using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, passed in 1994 by a Democrat-controlled Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It prohibits the use of force, threats of force, or physical obstruction against anyone who is seeking or providing reproductive health services.

The White House has yet to release the names of those pardoned but the Thomas More Society said the 21 it petitioned Trump to pardon were: Joan Bell, Coleman Boyd, Joel Curry, Jonathan Darnel, Eva Edl, Chester Gallagher, William Goodman, Dennis Green, Lauren Handy, Paulette Harlow, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall, the Rev. Fidelis Moscinski, Justin Phillips, Paul Place, Paul Vaughn, Bevelyn Beatty Williams, Calvin Zastrow, Eva Zastrow, and James Zastrow.

Trump addressed pardons for anti-abortion activists during a Faith and Freedom Coalition event in June, raising the case of Harlow, a 75-year-old Catholic convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and sentenced in May to two years in prison.

"Paulette is one of many peaceful pro-lifers who Joe Biden has rounded up, sometimes with SWAT teams, and thrown them in jail," Trump said in June. "Many people are in jail over this. This is just crazy. We’re going to get that taken care of immediately."

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, have reintroduced legislation to repeal the FACE Act.

Trump, who in 2020 became the first sitting president to address the March for Life rally in person, will use a video address for Friday's rally. Vice President JD Vance will address the rally in person, his first official public appearance since the inauguration. Trump on Friday is expected to begin his first official trip as president, with visits planned for western North Carolina, Los Angeles and Nevada.

"President Trump has consistently taken a strong stance that weaponizing the government to go after pro-life advocates and other ideological opponents is wrong," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, in a news release. "In 2020, President Trump made history as the first president to speak in person at the March for Life. We are thankful he and Vice President Vance continue to prioritize this massive annual human rights demonstration, which brings everyday Americans from all over the country to raise their voices for LIFE.

"Together Trump and Vance are restoring the gains we were making for unborn children and their mothers before Biden took over and pushed abortion into every aspect of the government. The difference from the previous administration couldn’t be clearer."

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