Latest news with #FreedomofAccesstoClinicEntrancesAct
The National
19-06-2025
- Politics
- The National
The dangers of imported American culture wars
The US anti-abortion movement is more emboldened than it has been in years, largely due to Trump removing nearly all protections for abortion providers. He has instructed federal prosecutors to limit enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (Face), which was introduced in response to violence against abortion clinics and staff, including the murder of doctors. In January, Trump also chose to pardon 23 anti-abortion activists who had been jailed for invading and blockading abortion clinics under the Face Act. READ MORE: Anas Sarwar urged to whip Scottish Labour MPs against welfare cuts The chilling events of the weekend should give us pause for thought here in Scotland. The hard-won Safe Access Zones Act, which keeps anti-abortion protesters 200 metres away from hospitals providing abortion services, came about in direct response to the importation of US-style clinic protests. Although many of the protesters were locals, they were recruited and organised by Texan anti-abortion organisation 40 Days for Life. I first witnessed the protests while living near the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, and the unmistakably US overtones – the signs, the fanaticism – made my blood run cold. Abortion rights in Scotland are under attack with the help of US dollars. When anti-abortion activist Rose Docherty flouted the new buffer zone legislation, she was swiftly lionised by the Alliance Defending Freedom – an American legal advocacy group categorised as an extremist homophobic hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre. She was framed as a persecuted victim of state overreach, rather than someone deliberately undermining public health protections. An even more disturbing example came when JD Vance grossly misrepresented Scotland's buffer zone laws, which led to a surge in abuse directed at MSP Gillian Mackay. Mackay, who spearheaded the buffer zones bill, was called a 'baby killer', received emails suggesting her abusers knew her home address, and was even sent rape threats – all while she was pregnant. The recent events in America are existentially terrifying, threatening our sense of freedom, peace, and democracy. It would be a grave mistake to assume that such extremism cannot reach our shores. It already has. Attempts to undermine our laws and the will of our parliament are not theoretical – they are happening right now. Yet, watching so many Americans take to the streets in defence of the freedoms they cherish gives me hope. I have faith in them – and I have faith in us.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republicans Move A Step Closer To Repealing Protections For Abortion Clinics
The Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill on Tuesday that would repeal a 30-year-old federal law created to safeguard abortion clinics — even as violence against providers and clinics has skyrocketed since the Supreme Court ended federal abortion protections. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, also known as the FACE Act, was enacted in 1994 by President Bill Clinton in response to escalating violence against abortion clinics. The law made it a federal crime to use force or the threat of force to injure, intimidate or block any person trying to provide or access reproductive health care services. While the law has primarily been used to protect abortion clinics, it also protects fertility clinics, anti-abortion pregnancy centers, churches and other places of religious worship from similar violence. Anti-abortion violence dropped by 30% when the FACE Act was first signed into law. The law is arguably now more important than ever, since federal abortion protections fell in 2022 and violence against providers and clinics have skyrocketed. The year the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade, there was a 538% increase in people obstructing clinic entrances, a 913% increase in stalking of clinic staff and a 133% increase in bomb threats, according to a National Abortion Federation report. Reproductive rights are under attack. HuffPost is committed to reporting the truth, amplifying voices, and covering this fight with depth and care. Support our work by today. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduced the FACE Act Repeal Act of 2025 earlier this year, claiming that President Joe Biden's administration weaponized the law to prosecute anti-abortion activists. The repeal is part of a yearslong push by the GOP to stoke a false narrative that Democrats are waging a war against the anti-abortion religious right. Republican support for the bill comes less than a month after a California fertility clinic was bombed and one person died. After a heated debate on Tuesday, the repeal bill passed in a 13-10 vote along party lines. It now heads to the House for consideration. 'NAF has been tracking anti-abortion violence since 1977, and we know this for certain: when the FACE Act is being enforced, it is an effective and important tool to keep abortion providers and their patients safe,' Julie Gonen, chief legal officer at the National Abortion Federation (NAF), said in a Tuesday statement. 'It is unconscionable to see anti-abortion legislators trying to repeal a law that has been keeping people safe for decades.' During Tuesday's debate, Roy claimed that he had little issue with the actual law and instead worried about overcriminalization and the Biden administration's 'one-sided enforcement of the law.' He noted that he's received pushback from within the Trump administration over his repeal bill because he said the administration is looking to use the FACE Act to protect churches. 'The previous administration weaponized the FACE Act to prosecute nonviolent pro-life Americans with the harshest sentences,' Roy said, routinely referring to abortion clinics and pro-choice advocates as 'anti-life.' Republicans argued that the law has been disproportionately applied against anti-abortion advocates who protest at abortion clinics. Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said there has 'most certainly been egregious abuse' from the Biden administration's 'selective enforcement' of the law. Roy said in his opening statement that 8% of the FACE Act cases filed under Biden's Department of Justice were against protesters at anti-abortion centers and 92% were against anti-abortion activists at abortion clinics. Because of this there should be a full repeal of the federal law, Republicans argued. But several Democrats pointed out that simply looking at the numbers does not prove selective enforcement of the law. Instead, it shows that abortion clinics face a disproportionate amount of harassment and violence from anti-abortion protesters. 'The FACE Act is completely viewpoint neutral in its textual scope and viewpoint neutral in its application,' ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said. 'If more people have been convicted of attacking pro-choice abortion clinics than have been convicted of attacking pro-life pregnancy centers, as my friend from Texas suggests, it is because there have been vastly more people attacking abortion clinics than attacking pregnancy centers.' The only Republican on the committee who did not support a full repeal was Rep. Tom McClintock (Calif.), who said enforcement was abused but the law should instead be revised. Days into his presidency, Donald Trump announced he would limit enforcement of the FACE Act. He dismissed a handful of current ongoing FACE investigations and instructed prosecutors to apply the law only in 'extraordinary circumstances' such as instances of death, extreme bodily harm or significant property damage. Trump also pardoned 23 people for FACE convictions that ranged from harassing pregnant patients to breaking into clinics and stealing fetal tissue. Several of those pardoned, some of whom were serving prison time, have already said theyplan to return to targeting and invading abortion clinics. Abortion providers, clinic staff and other experts working in the reproductive health field told HuffPost shortly after Trump's announcement that they were deeply demoralized by the administration's decision. Some had already seen an increase in aggression and hostility from protesters in the few weeks since Trump took office. 'Unless you have worked at an abortion clinic, you will never understand the terror we face on a daily basis,' Renee Chelian, founder and CEO of Michigan abortion clinic Northland Family Planning, said in a statement following the advancement of the bill to repeal the FACE Act. Chelian and her staff have survived arson attacks and a chemical bomb, as well as bomb and death threats. Eight of the protesters who attacked Northland Family Planning were convicted under the FACE Act during the Biden administration, but were later pardoned by Trump. 'Our patients have been blockaded from entering while needing immediate medical attention. My own children were targeted and terrorized,' Chelian said. 'The FACE Act is one of the only tools to hold these criminals accountable … There is no explanation for repealing this law other than purposefully inspiring violence against patients and clinic staff.' 'We're Sitting Ducks': Abortion Providers Brace For Violence After Trump Limits Clinic Protections Arson, Burglary, Death Threats: Abortion Clinics See Uptick In Violence Post-Roe Trump Admin Sends 'Ominous Signal' On Emergency Abortion Care Guidelines
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
The Chrisleys join Tennessee list of those pardoned by Trump this year, here are the others
Todd and Julie Chrisley recently received the promise of freedom thanks to a pardon announced by President Donald Trump. The couple, known for their Tennessee-based reality series "Chrisley Knows Best" and for their very public trial and convictions on bank fraud and tax evasion, are expected to receive full pardons from Trump after their original convictions in 2022. The couple joins a list of 12 other people convicted in Tennessee whom President Trump pardoned. Here is a list of those who received a pardon from the president this year. In 2025, President Trump pardoned 12 people convicted in Tennessee. Most of those pardoned were part of a group of anti-abortion protestors who traveled from across the country to block the entrance to a reproductive health clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, in 2021. These protestors were convicted for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which was established in 1994 to prohibit anyone from preventing a person from accessing an abortion clinic. Of the twelve pardoned in the state, only four lived in Tennessee: Coleman Boyd of Bolton, Mississippi, was sentenced for conspiracy to obstruct access to a clinic providing reproductive health services and violation of the FACE Act. He was pardoned on Jan. 23, 2025, from his five-year probation sentence, conditioned upon six months of home detention. He was convicted in January 2024. Caroline Davis of Michigan pleaded guilty in October 2023 to conspiracy to interfere with access to clinic entrances, aiding and abetting interference with access to clinic entrances, and interference with access to clinics. She was pardoned on Jan. 23, 2025, from three years' probation and one year's nonreporting probation. Eva Edl of Aiken, South Carolina, was sentenced for violating the FACE Act, conspiracy against rights and clinic access obstruction. She was pardoned on Jan. 23, 2025, from her three-year probation sentence. She was convicted in April 2024. Chester Gallagher, of Lebanon, Tennessee, was sentenced for conspiracy to obstruct access to a clinic providing reproductive health services and violation of the FACE Act. He was pardoned on Jan. 23, 2025, from 16 months' imprisonment and three years' supervised release. He was convicted in January 2024. Dennis Green, of Cumberland, Virginia, was sentenced for conspiracy to obstruct access to a clinic providing reproductive health services and violation of the FACE Act. He was pardoned on Jan. 23, 2025, from three years' supervised release, conditioned upon six months of home detention. He was convicted in January 2024. Heather Idoni of Michigan was convicted of conspiracy against rights, violating the FACE Act and obstructing clinic access in January 2024. She was sentenced to 24 months' imprisonment and 36 months' supervised release. Idoni was pardoned on Jan. 23, 2025. Brian Kelsey of Germantown, Tennessee, was pardoned on March 11, 2025, from his 21 months' imprisonment and three years' supervised release sentence. In 2023, Kelsey was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and aiding and abetting the acceptance of excessive contributions. Paul Place of Centerville, Tennessee, was convicted of violating the FACE Act in April 2024. Place was pardoned on Jan. 23, 2025, from his three-year probation sentence. Paul Vaughn, of Centerville, Tennessee, was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct access to a clinic providing reproductive health services and violation of the FACE Act in January 2024. He was pardoned on Jan. 23, 2025, from his sentence of three years' supervised release, conditioned upon six months' home confinement. Calvin Zastrow, of Michigan, was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct access to a clinic providing reproductive health services, violation of the FACE Act and clinic access obstruction. He was pardoned on Jan. 23, 2025, from his sentence of six months' imprisonment; three years' supervised release, conditioned upon six months' home confinement. He was convicted in January 2024. Eva Zastrow of Dover, Arkansas, was initially sentenced to three years' probation, but it was subsequently vacated and dismissed. Zastrow was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct access to a clinic providing reproductive health services, violation of the FACE Act and clinic access obstruction in April 2024. She was pardoned on Jan. 23, 2025. James Zastrow of Eldon, Missouri, was convicted of violating the FACE Act in April 2024. Zastow was pardoned from his three-year probation sentence on Jan. 23, 2025. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Who has Trump pardoned? Chrisleys join Tennessee list
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How Trump chipped away at abortion access in his first 100 days
President Trump steadily chipped away at abortion access during the first 100 days of his second term. Trump campaigned on leaving abortion decisions to the states, and has so far made no push to outlaw the procedure on a national level. But since he returned to office in January, he and his administration have taken steps to support anti-abortion activists and restrict access to abortion care not only in the United States, but around the world. Here are four moves the Trump administration has made on abortion so far in the president's second term. Three days after returning to the White House, Trump signed an executive order pardoning 23 anti-abortion protesters, some of whom were convicted of violating a federal law meant to protect abortion clinics from obstruction and threats. The law, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, was passed in 1994 when crimes against abortion providers were on the rise. 'They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people,' Trump told reporters while signing the order. 'This is a great honor to sign this.' Trump's pardons included a group of protesters convicted of forcing their way into an abortion clinic in the Washington, D.C., area and blockading the entrance in 2020. Protesters livestreamed the blockade on social media for several hours before they were arrested. Abortion clinics have expressed concern that the pardons will spark an uptick in protests and threats of violence towards patients and workers. In late January, the president reinstated a controversial policy that bars U.S. foreign aid recipients from discussing abortion. The Mexico City Policy, introduced during the second Reagan administration, has been rescinded by every Democratic president and subsequently reinstated by every Republican president since then. Trump previously restored the policy four days into his first term, and former President Biden rescinded it a week into his own four years later. Supporters of the policy argue that it prevents American taxpayer money from being spent on abortions overseas. But opponents of the policy, who refer to it as the 'global gag rule' due to the restrictions it places on what reproductive health providers can talk about with patients, say there is already legislation in place that prevents this from happening. They contend that Trump reinstating the policy will weaken access to abortion care across the globe. In March, the Trump administration dropped a lawsuit filed by the Biden-era Justice Department that sought to protect the right to an emergency abortion in Idaho, where the procedure is severely restricted. After the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, an Idaho 'trigger ban' on abortion went into effect that made performing or assisting in an abortion a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. The Biden administration then sued the state, arguing the ban made it impossible for emergency room doctors to provide emergency abortions to patients under their care and violated a federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. Under the law, hospitals are required to provide immediate and life-saving stabilizing treatment for patients with emergency medical conditions. Last year, the Supreme Court returned the case to a lower court, which temporarily paused Idaho's abortion ban. But by dropping the case, the Trump administration paved the way for the state's abortion ban to be reinstated. Abortion rights advocates said the administration's decision put the lives of pregnant women at risk. Meanwhile, some anti-abortion groups praised the Justice Department for dropping the case. The Trump administration earlier this year froze millions of dollars of federal funding intended to enable Americans to access birth control, cancer screenings and reproductive health care. The funding had been allocated under Title X, the U.S.'s only federal program solely aimed at providing affordable birth control and reproductive health care to low-income Americans. The program has been around since the 1970s and supported 4,000 clinics serving close to 2.8 million people in 2023 alone, according to the health advocacy nonprofit KFF. At least nine Planned Parenthood affiliates received notices about the program's funding being withheld beginning April 1. The first Trump administration similarly restricted Title X funding, issuing a rule in 2019 that barred reproductive health providers from receiving funds under the program if they mentioned abortion or referred patients for abortions. Planned Parenthood left the program because of the rule and reentered in 2021 after the Biden administration reversed it. While freezing funds to some recipients, the president's second administration has also restored some Title X funding to two state health programs that were kicked out of the program under Biden for failing to comply with some of its rules. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pam Bondi Unleashes On Alleged 'Anti-Christian Bias' — And A Christian Leader Has Thoughts
On Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi hosted an inaugural meeting of a task force consisting of other members of President Donald Trump's cabinet, to discuss its mission to eradicate alleged 'anti-Christian bias' within the federal government. The task force is an initiative born out of a February executive order by Trump, in which the president accused former President Joe Biden's administration of fostering an 'anti-Christian weaponization of government.' Bondi quoted a part of Trump's order at the beginning of Tuesday's meeting, saying, 'The Biden administration engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent anti-Christian offenses.' Among the severalexamples of supposed anti-Christian bias Trump listed in his executive order, was the mention of federal cases in which anti-abortion activists had been convicted of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act. He referenced the federal indictment of 11 anti-abortion protesters who were indicted for violating federal law by physically blocking the entrance of a reproductive clinic outside of Nashville, Tennessee, in 2021. Six were later convicted on felony conspiracy charges — and some sentences included prison time. Trump pardoned them in January. Trump also falsely suggested in his executive order that Biden declared 2024 Easter Sunday, which fell on March 31 last year, as Transgender Day of Visibility. International Transgender Day of Visibility has been recognized on March 31 since it was created over a decade ago by trans activist, psychotherapist Rachel Crandall Crocker — and Easter's date changes every year. Biden first recognized Transgender Day of Visibility with a proclamation on a Wednesday in 2021. The U.S. Department of Justice has additionally released a press release outlining a slew of examples that supposedly show anti-Christian bias, like past COVID-19 vaccine mandates for federal workers. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a member of the task force, shared allegations that federal employees have faced retaliation for 'opposing DEI/LGBT ideology that violated their religious conscience,' the release stated. But Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance and an ordained Baptist minister, joins the chorus of those who have taken issue with the Trump administration's apparent messaging that Christianity, the largest faith group in the U.S., is under attack. 'If you're not acknowledging as a Christian that you've got a lot of privilege in this country, you're out of your mind,' he told HuffPost, emphasizing the privilege particularly associated with white Christians. (Raushenbush was formerly the executive editor for HuffPost's Religion section.) Raushenbush said that while there may be 'real Christian persecution' that exists in other parts of the world, the Trump administration is speaking into an 'echo chamber' where some conservative and Christian media platforms are fueling concerns about 'Christian persecution' in the U.S. 'It's always about, 'They're coming for us,'' he said about the messaging on those platforms. He said efforts like the anti-Christian bias task force is the current administration's way to communicate that they're 'coming in and saving the day.' Raushenbush said he believes, if anything, hostility toward Christians has come from the White House. He referenced Trump's attacks on The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde earlier this year, after she made a plea for him to have 'mercy' on people in the country who are fearful about the future, as well as Vice President JD Vance's clashes with Catholic bishops helping immigrants, among other examples. Trump's executive order and task force is creating a 'distraction,' and an avenue, to fight 'political ideologies that the Trump administration doesn't agree with, and using religion to further those aims,' he said. Raushenbugh also charged that much of what the Trump administration really means when they say 'anti-Christian bias,' is 'anti-Christian bias against the Christian nationalists who most fervently supported them.' 'These are largely white protestant groups that insist that America is a Christian nation, and that everyone else who's here is a secondary status,' he said. Trump's executive order 'cites the First Amendment protection of religious liberty as its guiding principle, but in fact the order itself is a remarkable incursion against the separation of church and state,' said Brian Clites, Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan Professor in Catholic Studies II at Case Western University. 'In crafting the First Amendment's separation clause, our nation's founding fathers were most concerned that the government not intervene in disputes between and among Christians themselves,' he added. Clites, whose expertise includes the separation of church and state, and the history of Christianity within the U.S., said it's 'with the humble recognition that there is no fixed point that represents 'Christianity' as a whole.' He said he believes 'George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would cringe in horror' at Trump's executive order since 'it directly inserts the government into disputes between and among various Christian groups.' 'By calling out the protection of women's rights as 'anti-Christian,' the administration is uplifting the views of some Christians over and against the views of other Christians,' he said, later pointing out that research has shown that a majority of American Catholics think abortions should be legal. 'American Christians hold diverse views about reproductive justice and Transgender rights,' Clites said, adding that the administration's actions surrounding its task force is a 'clear violation of the separation of church and state,' rather than it being a protection of 'religious liberty.' And speaking about the indictments of anti-abortion protesters that Trump mentioned in his executive order, Raushenbush emphasized that those convicted were breaking the law. 'If they were treated differently than anyone else that was breaking the law, then of course, it would be important to look into that. Because no one should be prosecuted more because they're operating out of Christian faith,' he said, before he added: 'But it's also not a get out jail free card.' Raushenbush said the Trump administration has been vague about the criteria that constitutes 'anti-Christian bias,' and that their examples — like Biden's proclamation honoring International Transgender Day of Visibility — is them 'showing their hand.' He said he believes the messaging communicates a resistance to treating LGBTQ people with 'dignity and equality.' But as 'a public employee of the government, you have to treat everybody the same.' 'Everyone has a right to their beliefs — and they have a right to have accommodations... [but] make it a welcoming space for everyone,' he later said. 'Don't privilege one rather narrow sect of Christianity over all the other people. That's against the Constitution.' Trump Administration Urges Workers To Snitch On One Another For 'Anti-Christian Bias' Judge Blocks Trump Push To End DEI Programs In Public Schools Some U.S. Lawmakers Want More Christianity In Classrooms. Trump Could Embolden Their Plans.
