‘Victory’: Republican Lawmakers Praise Expected Pardon Of Pro-Lifers Imprisoned By Biden

Republican lawmakers praised President Donald Trump over an expected pardon for pro-lifers prosecuted and imprisoned by the Biden administration over peaceful protests at abortion facilities.  

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said Thursday that it would be a victory for America after The Daily Wire reported that pardoning the pro-lifers targeted by the Biden administration was an immediate priority for Trump’s team and could come in a matter of days. Under Biden, the Justice Department successfully prosecuted nearly two dozen pro-lifers under the FACE Act, a Clinton-era law that makes it a federal crime to stand in front of an abortion facility entrance. 

“It is tremendous news to hear the news that President Trump will soon pardon the brave pro-life Americans who were unjustly targeted by Biden’s weaponized DOJ,” Roy told The Daily Wire. “These Americans are peaceful, pro-life Americans who were singled out and targeted by their government solely because of their beliefs.”

Roy also urged the passage of a bill he has sponsored to repeal the FACE Act, which has been disproportionately used against pro-lifers despite assurances it is also supposed to protect churches and crisis pregnancy centers. Lee has sponsored a companion bill in the Senate. 

“A victory for people of faith and the rule of law in America Unjust & unequal application of the FACE Act against Pro Life activists stops under President Trump. Let’s pass my bill with [Chip Roy] to repeal the FACE Act to end these political persecutions forever,” Lee said. 

Other lawmakers also celebrated the news of the impending pardons. 

“Weaponizing the DOJ against pro-life protestors exercising their First Amendment rights was wrong,” West Virginia Rep. Riley Moore said. “Great news as the March for Life comes to Washington tomorrow!!”

Over the past few days, Republicans have urged Trump, who previously spoke out against the arrests of the pro-lifers, to issue the pardons. 

On Thursday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) highlighted the plight of several of the pro-lifers currency imprisoned from the Senate floor. 

“This is a grotesque assault on the principles of this country. That is why I have urged President Donald Trump to pardon all of these pro-life prisoners unjustly persecuted…by the corrupt Biden Administration, and I do mean corrupt,” Hawley said. 

Hawley specifically mentioned multiple pro-life activists currently in prison, like Bevelyn Williams (41 months) and Lauren Handy (57 months), and those facing prison like 89-year-old Eva Edl. Edl, who survived a World War II-era Yugoslavian concentration camp, faces 10 years in prison over a conviction in Detroit over a peaceful pro-life protest. 

“From a man who used his power illegitimately to pardon his own family, to pardon his own son, to excuse his own kin of wrongful, willful illegalities, protected drug lords, and killers, and murderers, and kingpins, and yet sent concentration camp survivors to prison because they spoke up for life, it does not get morally worse than that,” Hawley said of Biden. 

“President Trump can turn the chapter on this dark period of our history. He can right the wrongs that this last administration perpetrated,” he added. “He can begin to restore the requirements that the conscience of our country puts in front of us.”

Citing reporting of their trial from The Daily Wire, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) sent a letter to Trump on Thursday urging him to pardon six pro-lifers convicted in Nashville last year, including one currently in prison and one set to go to prison.

Trump is expected to issue the pardons in a matter of days.

Mary Margaret Olohan contributed to this report.

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