Tag: FACE Act

Catholic Churches Attacked 400 Times Since 2020, Tracker Finds

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Catholic Mass

 Catholic churches in the United States have been attacked at least 400 times over the past four years, according to data compiled by the Catholic advocacy organization CatholicVote.

The hundreds of attacks across the nation began in connection with widespread civil unrest in May 2020, CatholicVote said. Examples include church burnings, beheadings of statues of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary, swastikas painted on grave stones, satanic and blasphemous statements graffitied on walls, windows smashed, Masses disrupted, and even the murder of a Catholic priest.

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Pro-Life Activists Face 11 Years in Prison After Jury Hands Down Guilty Verdict

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Six pro-life activists were found guilty of blocking access to an abortion clinic on Tuesday and could face a sentence of up to 11 years in prison, according to a press release from the Thomas More Society.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged 11 pro-life activists in October 2022 with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which “prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services,” for blocking the entrance of an abortion clinic in March 2021. A jury ruled that the six defendants were guilty after a six-day trial at the Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the press release.

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DOJ Attorney Playing Key Role in Jack Smith’s Prosecution of Trump Worked on Case That Put Pro-Life Activist in Jail

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Molly Gaston

One of the prosecutors helping special counsel Jack Smith prosecute former President Donald Trump for alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election also worked on a high-profile case against a pro-life activist.

Molly Gaston, a prosecutor who spent years in the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney’s Office and is now playing a key role on Smith’s team, worked on the early stages of the prosecution of pro-life activist Lauren Handy. Handy had been in jail since August when she, along with four co-defendants, were found guilty of violating the Freedom of Access To Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for blocking access to a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic in 2020.

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Minneapolis Pro-Life Clinic Vandalized

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“If abortions arnt safe neither r u [sic].”

That was just one of the phrases scrawled across a Christian pro-life pregnancy resource center in Minneapolis over the weekend where windows were also shattered by vandals.

Police were flagged down just after 1 a.m. Saturday by a Metro Transit bus driver who had witnessed suspects causing damage to property on a building at 2015 Chicago Avenue in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis, according to dispatch audio.

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DOJ Official Overseeing Prosecution of Pregnancy Center Attacks Has a History of Disparaging Them

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A top Department of Justice (DOJ) official who has criticized pregnancy resource centers, which she called “fake clinics,” is responsible for overseeing the prosecution of two individuals indicted for attacking pregnancy resource centers, according to the DOJ.

The DOJ indicted Caleb Freestone and Amber Smith-Stewart this week for various FACE Act violations after they allegedly spray-painted threats on pregnancy resource centers such as “If abortions aren’t safe than niether [sic] are you” and “WE’RE COMING for U,” according to the DOJ. Kristen Clarke, the Assistant Attorney General heading the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, which will be prosecuting this case, condemned the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision to strike down a California law requiring pregnancy resource centers to offer information about state-funded abortions, as previously reported by The Washington Free Beacon.

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‘Guns Pointed at Me’: FBI Arrests Father of 11 in Front of His Children for Pro-Life Work

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation this week arrested a pro-life father of 11 children, charging him with “conspiracy against rights secured by the FACE Act, and committing FACE Act violations.”

Paul Vaughn of Centerville, Tennessee, told The Daily Signal in a Friday phone interview that FBI came to the door of his home, “guns pointed at the door, banging on the house, yelling and screaming, ‘Open up. FBI,’ that kind of thing. When I opened the door and saw the guns pointed at me, I asked them what they wanted, who they were looking for, and they said they wanted me.”

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Jim Jordan Launches Congressional Inquiry into FBI Raid on Mark Houck, DOJ’s Political Enforcement of FACE Act

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Republicans Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mike Johnson of Louisiana are launching a congressional inquiry into the Justice Department’s political enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, The Daily Signal has learned.

“Several recent actions by the Department reinforce the conclusion that the Justice Department is using its federal law enforcement authority as a weapon against the administration’s political opponents,” the Republican congressmen said in a letter to both Jacqueline Romero, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Since the unprecedented leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Justice Department has politicized enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.”

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DOJ Charges 15, Including 87-Year-Old Woman, for Allegedly Blocking Door to Tennessee Abortion Clinic

Peter D'Abrosca

After more than a year of investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Justice has charged pro-life protestors, including an 87-year-old woman, with a little-known federal crime for allegedly blocking the entrance to an abortion clinic. 

The incident occurred on March 5, 2021, when the ringleader of an ad hoc pro-life group called Chester Gallagher live streamed he and several other protestors blocking the entrance to the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mount Juliet, Tennessee.

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Merrick Garland Cites Unexplained Threats of Violence to Involve Authorities in Culture War Issues

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Merrick Garland, once hailed as a “moderate” choice for President Joe Biden’s attorney general, has now twice referenced unexplained threats of violence in directing authorities to investigate hot button culture issues.

The attorney general directed the FBI on Oct. 4 to target parents who allegedly threaten violence against public school officials. He also ordered authorities in September to enforce the FACE Act in response to any violence from pro-life activists.

But the Department of Justice has not explained or offered examples of the violence it is referring to in either of these instances. The DOJ did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s many requests for comment on this point.

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