President Donald Trump on Thursday pardoned 23 protesters prosecuted under the Biden Department of Justice for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act of 1994, including Tennessee activist Bevelyn Williams, who confirmed her release in a post to the social media platform X.
Williams confirmed she was home in a video posted to X late on Thursday, showing the pro-life activist greeted by her husband and child after leaving the Federal Correctional Facility (FCI) in Aliceville, Alabama.
“I’m home. I’m free,” Williams told her supporters in the video. Through laughter she added, “I’m really free.”
Im HOME! pic.twitter.com/lEWr5AyrEf
— Bevelyn Williams (@MrsBevelynW) January 24, 2025
Williams was convicted and sentenced to more than three years in prison due to her role at a 2020 abortion protest in New York, where prosecutors said she and other activists broke federal law by blocking the entrance to a Planned Parenthood location in Manhattan.
She reported to FCI-Aliceville last October, completing roughly three months of her 3.5-year prison sentence prior to Trump’s pardon.
Trump signed the pardon as part of a live news conference, and in an excerpt posted to X, the president decried the prosecution of Williams and the other pro-life protesters.
“Twenty-three people were prosecuted. They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people, they should not have been prosecuted,” said Trump. “This is a great honor to sign this.”
🚨 BREAKING: President Donald J. Trump grants pardons to peaceful pro-life protesters prosecuted by the Biden administration over exercising their First Amendment rights. pic.twitter.com/XwzU4dEJt8
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 23, 2025
Prior to reporting for her sentence, Williams compared the case against her to the criminal cases that targeted Trump, stating that Democrats abused the Department of Justice to target and harangue their political enemies.
“It’s not justice,” said Williams in a video prior to her incarceration. “They tried to put it on Trump, but this is exactly what they’re doing. They’re putting people they don’t like politically into prison.”
She told her audience, “Please don’t forget to vote and do all you can to elect leaders who stand for justice.”
Prior to the pro-life protesters, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentence of about 1,500 defendants targeted by the Biden administration for their participation in the civil unrest on January 6.
These include Stewart Parks, the Tennessee Republican who ran for U.S. Congress in 2022, and Ronald Colton McAbee, the former deputy with the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office who served more than 1,200 days behind bars prior to the presidential pardon.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Bevelyn Beatty Williams” by Bevelyn Beatty Williams.
Appalling. These are the heroes the Biden Regime put in prison. Separating a mother from her little daughter. Meanwhile, actual criminals have been running loose in the streets with the full approval of the Demonrat party.