Outcry Grows over Nearly 5-Year Prison Sentence of Pro-Life Activist

Lawmakers, legal experts, and analysts are decrying the nearly five-year prison sentence levied on a pro-life activist as an example of the weaponization of the federal government against citizens with disfavored political views.

On Tuesday, pro-life activist Lauren Handy was sentenced to 57 months in prison for leading a group of other activists in blockading the entrance to a Washington, D.C. abortion facility in October 2020. Handy was prosecuted by the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division along with nine other co-defendants and became the first person ever to be sentenced for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The FACE Act was originally designed to protect both pregnancy resource centers and abortion facilities, but the Biden administration has notably used the law to justify the prosecution of pro-life activists on numerous occasions ever since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

“Today’s outrageous 57-month sentence for a progressive pro-life activist is a stark reminder: Biden’s DOJ is fully weaponized against pro-life American citizens, and they are using the FACE Act to do it,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) in a statement following Handy’s sentence. “House Republicans should defund the DOJ weaponization, repeal the FACE Act, and stand up for the freedoms that we campaign on.”

On Wednesday, Peter Breen, who represents Handy in the case and serves as executive vice president and head of litigation at Thomas More Society, pointed out on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” that in addition to the FACE Act charge, the DOJ unearthed an obscure “conspiracy against rights” law to prosecute Handy.

“They’re using a 10-year felony statute conspiracy against rights that was invented to go after the KKK over 100 years ago and [are] now using it against these peaceful pro-life protesters,” he explained. “You juxtapose them against the over 100 pro-life churches and pregnancy centers that have been firebombed and vandalized, with almost nothing done by the Department of Justice.”

Breen went on contend that that Handy and her co-defendants were specifically targeted by the Biden administration at a time when much more violent crimes have gone unpunished.

“[T]he traditional way you deal with folks doing civil disobedience is they get a trespass charge — you get a slap on the wrist and they move on,” he noted. “I mean, [look at what] we’ve been through in the last five years or so. [O]ur cities have been burned and people weren’t even charged. And now we’re looking at people that peaceably came into a late-term abortion facility where we think we’ve got evidence of illegal abortions [as well as] actual homicides of little children that were born. And our folks are getting five years in a federal penitentiary for that. That makes no sense.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins further juxtaposed the prosecution of the pro-lifers with the anti-Israel protestors occupying college campuses across the country.

“You just need to go back a couple of days to look [at] what was happening on some of these college campuses, Columbia University, where they’re breaking into buildings, occupying buildings, destroying property, and at most get a slap on the wrist or maybe expelled from school, not looking at five years in prison for peacefully protesting and advocating for the protection of the unborn,” he observed. “[I]f this does not show how the Biden administration has weaponized the law and the federal enforcement through the Department of Justice, I don’t know what does.”

Breen concurred, remarking that the optics of the sentence duration is getting America’s attention.

“[T]he American people are seeing what’s going on,” he insisted. “I’ve never seen so much sensitivity both [from] political leadership and in the American people. They’re seeing this, and I think it’s getting through. There is a silver lining to this — the people of America are waking up and seeing this sort of thing, and it is driving them to understand the Biden administration is misusing the government.”

As Breen went on to detail, the Biden administration currently has a host of other FACE Act and “conspiracy against rights” prosecutions it is attempting to convict other pro-lifers of.

“[W]e’ve got a similar situation in Tennessee,” he related. “There’s another one in Michigan as well. And our client in Tennessee is Paul Vaughn, who [is] a dad of 11 kids. He’s just a regular guy who was there. In fact, he didn’t even block the door, he was just there for moral support. They swept him in as part of a ‘conspiracy’ to support a First Amendment protected activity. … [But the] Supreme Court was even looking at this recently. Folks have been keyed into it. So we’re very hopeful that we may be able to get at least the felony part, this ‘conspiracy against rights,’ overturned. I mean, look, Dobbs reversed Roe. There is no right to abortion in America. So why are we now dealing with this conspiracy against rights charge? It makes no sense at all.”

Mary Szoch, who serves as director of the Center for Human Dignity at FRC, expressed further alarm at the severity of Handy’s sentence.

“In Matthew 25, Jesus talks about the separation of the sheep from the goats,” she told The Washington Stand. “He says that the King will say to those on His right, ‘For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ In today’s age, it’s easy to imagine the King also saying, ‘I was being killed in an abortion clinic…’. To Lauren Handy, one can imagine the King adding, ‘and you surrendered yourself to try and rescue me.’”

Szoch continued, “The sentencing of Lauren Handy to almost five years in prison is unjust, politically motivated, and un-American. Lauren and the others — several of whom were grandparents — who peacefully protested the brutal killing of unborn children should be seen as heroes — not violent criminals who deserve jail time. In the District, 67% of crimes go unprosecuted. All one has to do is look at the filming of the rescue to see this was a completely peaceful, non-violent protest. Yet, it was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. What a disgrace. What a tragedy. Lauren and those sentenced along with her should be in all of our prayers. Their witnesses should motivate each of us to do all we can in our state of life to defend the unborn.”

Attorneys with the Thomas More Society representing Handy announced Tuesday that they will file an appeal to overturn her conviction as well as contest the constitutionality of the FACE Act.

RE: Biden’s America. Vote these demons out of office.

I truly believe that demonic forces are at work today.

In a retrospective documentary interview, an exorcist priest who did technical advice for The Exorcist movie said people like him fear the American people have the impression since the movie that two gargantuan forces of equal power are fighting each other today but he said God has already won through Christ.

But parishes all over the country have an exorcist
and memoirs of some show horrific battles. However, to be honest, many say small scale work is much more common for the exorcists.

Hard to accept the apparent uprising of evil lately.

Biden Appointee, DOJ’s Kristen Clarke,
Celebrates Prison Time for Pro-Life Activists
Daily Signal ^ | May 17, 2024 | Mary Margaret Olohan
Posted on 5/17/2024, 10:08:28 AM by Red Badger

The Justice Department’s Kristen Clarke (a hand-picked Biden appointee) issued a statement this week celebrating news that seven pro-life activists would spend time in prison for attempting to stop abortions from taking place.

Clarke, who heads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and is responsible for enforcing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, painted the pro-life activists as violent radicals in her remarks: “Violence has no place in our national discourse on reproductive health.”

The activists’ actions were nonviolent, and the DOJ’s release on the matter even notes that they “passively” resisted “their anticipated arrests.”

“Using force, threatening to use force or physically obstructing access to reproductive health care is unlawful,” she added, before referring to the 1993 murder of a Florida abortionist. “As we mark the 30th anniversary of the FACE Act, it’s important that we not lose sight of the history of violence against reproductive health care providers, including the murder of Dr. David Gunn in Florida—tragic and horrific events that led to passage of the law.”

The FACE Act is a 1994 law that supposedly protects both abortion clinics and pregnancy resource centers, but has been heavily enforced by President Joe Biden’s DOJ against pro-lifers since the June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade.

“The Justice Department will continue to protect both patients seeking reproductive health services and providers of those services,” the DOJ official concluded. “We will hold accountable those who seek to interfere with access to reproductive health services in our country.”

Lauren Handy is the pro-life activist who received the longest sentence. She will spend 57 months in prison and was the first person sentenced for violating the FACE Act.

The enforcement of the FACE Act is led by Biden appointee Clarke, who, following a report from The Daily Signal, recently admitted that she hid an arrest and its subsequent expungement from investigators when she was confirmed to her Justice Department post.

The president’s critics have accused Biden and the DOJ of weaponizing the FACE Act against pro-lifers while failing to charge pro-abortion criminals for the hundreds of attacks on pregnancy resource centers since the May 2022 leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion indicating Roe would soon be overturned.

Some, among them Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, have called for the repeal of the FACE Act, arguing that it serves no purpose but to target pro-life activists.

“The Biden administration is using the FACE Act to give pro-life activists and senior citizens lengthy prison terms for nonviolent offenses and protests—all while turning a blind eye to the violence, arson, and riots conducted on behalf of ‘approved’ leftist causes,” Lee told The Daily Signal in a Tuesday statement.

“Unequal enforcement of the law is a violation of the law,” he added, “and men and women who try to expose the horrors of abortion are being unjustly persecuted for their motivations.”

snip

Call Congress
(202) 224-3121
U.S. House switchboard operator
Mention state and zip to get connected.

Message: DOJ Clarke’s testifying falsely to Congress, falsifying govt documents about her arrest and jailing, her comments about racial superiority, and her role organizing a 1994 event at Harvard that hosted a professor who accused Jews of persecuting black people are troubling.

She should step down immediately.

Clarke falsely testifying indicates she apparently believes Americans
who pay her salary are too stupid to determine the facts.

Americans cannot tolerate a self-serving justice official with an utter contempt for its citizens.

American Law Journal.com

excerpt-—Clarke has dedicated her career to strengthening democracy by combating discrimination faced by African Americans and other marginalized communities.

She has written many articles and books including chapters in Barack Obama and African American Empowerment: The Rise of Black America’s New Leadership and Seeking Higher Ground: The Hurricane Katrina Crisis, Race and Public Policy Reader where she also served as co-editor of both volumes.

Does she know ousted Harvard plagiarist Claudine Gay?
Did Ckarke plagiarize her numerous law journal opinions on discrimination?
signal.com.

dailysignal.com
by Mary Margaret Olohan

snip

During Clarke’s confirmation hearings, Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton asked Clarke: “Since becoming a legal adult, have you ever been arrested for or accused of committing a violent crime against any person?”

Clarke responded, “No,” according to responses she submitted to the Senate under oath in a document called “Questions for the Record.”

On Tuesday evening, Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee called for Clarke’s resignation.
“Kristen Clarke is in charge of enforcing civil rights laws,” Lee said in a statement posted to X. “She enforces those laws aggressively against anyone who sneezes near an abortion clinic. And not at all against those who vandalize churches. She lied under oath during her confirmation proceedings, and should resign.”

“She lied under oath to mask her arrest for committing a violent crime, yet she zealously prosecutes peaceful pro-life protesters,” the senator added.

Mary Margaret Olohan is a senior reporter for The Daily Signal and the author of Detrans: True Stories of Escaping the Gender Ideology Cult. She previously reported for both The Daily Caller and The Daily Wire. Email her at marymargaret.olohan@daily

nypost.com

Kristen Clarke lied and must step down from the DOJ — NOW

By NYPost Editorial Board / Published May 2, 2024

DOJ official Kristen Clarke admitted that she lied during her Senate confirmation process in 2021. When you work for Joe Biden, laws really are for the little people — even when you’re in charge of enforcing them.

Witness Justice Department civil rights chief Kristen Clarke, who’s admitted that she lied during her 2021 Senate confirmation process. Asked by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in a questionnaire if she had “ever been arrested for or accused of committing a violent crime against any person,” Clarke answered no. In fact, she had been — on a 2006 domestic violence complaint when she allegedly sliced open her hubby’s finger with a knife. Clarke’s now arguing that because the arrest was expunged, she wasn’t required to disclose it to lawmakers. That’s precisely the kind of razor-sharp logic that top Biden appointees are known for.

Then again, Clarke’s the same dunderhead who muffed a major question about First Amendment litigation last year, claiming in a congressional hearing to be totally unaware of the lawsuit by the state of Missouri against the president over government efforts against “disinformation” — a huge civil rights issue where Team Biden had lost and was appealing to the Supreme Court.

Her defense now is beyond pathetic. She told an unambiguous lie to Congress. Was she thinking she’d never get caught, or that if she did, her political connections would protect her? It’s of a piece with the overall attitude of Biden’s circle: If you have the power, laws don’t apply to you.

That a scofflaw like this should serve at such a high level in the Justice Department is beyond absurd. How can someone who seemingly lies under oath be trusted with seeing that laws are properly enforced and justice is truly served?

Not that Clarke’s previous record was stellar. She lobbied the Obama administration, way back in 2009, to let Black Panthers who terrorized black poll workers off the hook. She served on an academic journal (did she plagiarize?) with antisemitic 9/11 truther Amiri Baraka, and lied about that too.

In other words, she’s a radical to the bone. But that’s a plus in this administration: Biden has remade Justice into the enforcement arm of his political agenda, siccing the FBI on (for example) parents who protest school boards. Ideology is what matters, not integrity.

Biden DOJ subjecting Pro-lifers to hate crimes, being penalized under FACE Act.

Call Congress
(202) 224-3121
U.S. House switchboard operator
Mention state and zip to get connected.

Message: America’s existential threat is the absence of
consequences for abortion advocates committing hate crimes against pro-lifers. We need to establish by law that abortion advocates are committing hate crimes against abortion opponents based on gender identity, religion, religious practice,or religious orientation, in most cases.

REFERENCE A hate crime is a criminal act that targets a victim based on the victim’s actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity or expression, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation.

You can report a hate crime to the FBI online at: tips.FBI.gov.

Follow the instructions on the pop-ups and fill out the online form to report a hate crime.

By Phone: Call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).

You can also reach out to your local FBI field office. Find the phone number for the FBI field office closest to you at www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices.

The FBI may reach out to you for more information as they investigate.

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