June 12, 2025
Big win for the pro-life movement as Congress just took the first step to strike down the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and stop it from targeting peaceful pro-life advocates once and for all.
Rep. Chip Roy’s FACE Act Repeal Act passed out of the House Judiciary Committee in a 13–10 vote—sending a clear message that the days of targeting peaceful sidewalk counselors and prayer warriors could be numbered.
For far too long, the FACE Act has been used to intimidate, arrest, and imprison peaceful Americans who simply pray or offer help outside abortion facilities.
President Bill Clinton signed the FACE Act in 1994 under the pretense of preventing violence. However, the pro-abortion Biden administration weaponized it to target and criminalize peaceful pro-life Americans, while turning a blind eye to escalating violence against Pregnancy Help Centers (PHCs) and pro-life organizations.
“The Biden-Harris administration disproportionately used the FACE Act to target pro-life Americans,” said Rep. Roy.
He blasted the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Biden administration, saying it “provided FOIA data demonstrating that a mere 8% of the FACE Act cases” during his administration “were against agitators at pregnancy resource centers” along with 92% “against pro-life individuals protesting at abortion [facilities].” Peacefully, we might add.
Under Biden’s watch, the federal government dragged peaceful pro-life Americans into courtrooms and sentenced them to prison simply for praying or quietly standing outside abortion facilities. And this crackdown does not only happen in the United States—in the United Kingdom, officials convicted Livia Tossici-Bolt for silently standing across an abortion facility holding a sign that read, “Here to talk, if you want.”
One of the most high-profile examples of blatant abuse of the FACE Act? Mark Houck, a peaceful pro-life dad, was arrested at gunpoint in front of his wife and children in 2022, after he was accused of violating the anti-free speech measure while sidewalk counseling outside a Planned Parenthood in Pennsylvania.
While he stood acquitted of all charges, he now continues his legal battle against the DOJ, demanding accountability for what he calls a politically motivated and excessive use of force during his 2022 arrest.
And earlier this year, President Donald Trump pardoned 23 peaceful pro-life advocates, making it clear he won’t target those who stand for Life as his predecessor did.
The FACE ACT originally aimed to protect all facilities tied to women’s health and reproduction—no matter their position on abortion. But enforcement has focused almost exclusively on shielding abortion facilities.
After the leak of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, over 100 pro-life PHCs, churches, and organizations across the country faced a wave of brutal attacks. These included:
- Mountain Area Pregnancy Services in Asheville, North Carolina, where windows were smashed, and threats were spray-painted across the building.
- The Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center in Washington, D.C., where the building was defaced with red paint, and the words “Jane Says Revenge” were spray-painted on the exterior.
- The Oregon Right to Life office in Keizer, Oregon, where individuals ignited and threw two Molotov cocktails at the building.
- Multiple churches vandalized across the country.
Students for Life Action (SFLAction) continues to demand a full repeal of the FACE Act and an end to the former Biden administration’s two-tiered justice system—one that cracks down on peaceful pro-lifers while letting violent abortion radicals off the hook.