On the eve of the 2025 March for Life, President Trump pardoned 23 pro-lifers who were prosecuted and convicted, with some imprisoned, for carrying out pro-life demonstrations near abortion clinics.

Of the 23, at least 10 reportedly were in prison at the time of the pardon. The longest sentence was given to Lauren Handy, who protested at a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic and received four years and nine months. Bevelyn Beatty Williams received three years and five months in prison after a New York City protest inside an abortion clinic.

Thomas More Society, a religious liberty law firm, submitted a letter to the Trump administration earlier this month, asking the president to pardon 21 of the pro-lifers, whom they argued had been unjustly punished by the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ). Many of those sentenced were elderly, including an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor and a Catholic woman suffering with health conditions who was 75 when she was sentenced. 

The letter presented each individual’s case and the why each deserved a presidential pardon while criticizing the Biden administration for weaponizing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which protects both abortion and pro-life pregnancy services.

“While Biden’s prosecutors almost entirely ignored the firebombing and vandalism of hundreds of pro-life churches and pregnancy centers, they viciously pursued pro-life Americans, obtaining convictions against them under the federal ‘FACE Act’ (18 U.S.C. § 248) and the Ku Klux Klan Act’s ‘Conspiracy Against Rights’ felony provisions (18 U.S.C. § 241),” the petition stated. “But these individuals participated in mere peaceable civil disobedience, in the heralded tradition of the American Civil Rights activists. Peaceable actions like these usually merit, at worst, a minor misdemeanor conviction.”

More than 100 incidents of obstruction or damage to pro-life pregnancy centers occurred under Biden, yet individuals faced charges in only two cases under the DOJ. Pro-life pregnancy resource centers face a 22 times greater likelihood of attacks in comparison to abortion facilities, according to the letter.

More than 30 pro-lifers faced charges under the FACE Act throughout the Biden administration. None of the 436 church attacks that occurred in 2023 faced prosecution under the FACE Act, even though the FACE Act protects places of religious worship.

Republican Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) said in statement: “97% of FACE Act prosecutions between the years of 1994-2024 were initiated against pro-life Americans; it is laughable to argue that the law hasn’t been weaponized. Let’s put H.R. 589 [a bill to repeal prohibitions on access to clinic entrances] on the President’s desk and end this once and for all.”

Thomas More Society sought pardons for Joan Bell, Coleman Boyd, Joel Curry, Jonathan Darnel, Eva Edl, Chester Gallagher, William Goodman, Dennis Green, Lauren Handy, Paulette Harlow, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall, Father Fidelis Moscinski, Justin Phillips, Paul Place, Paul Vaughn, Bevelyn Beatty Williams, Calvin Zastrow, Eva Zastrow and James Zastrow.

Trump also pardoned two other pro-lifers the Thomas More Society did not include.

“Many of them are elderly people,” Trump said. “They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this.”

The pardon occurred on Jan. 23, the day before the 52nd annual March for Life, held in Washington D.C. where an estimated 150,000 pro-lifers were expected to attend.

Trump, who was the first president to attend the March for Life rally in his last term, flew to California to witness the desolation caused by the recent wildfires. A video message from Trump was played at the rally in his stead, where he praised the work of pro-lifers.

“A reformed Department of Justice will finally investigate the radical left attacks on churches and crisis pregnancy centers, and we will bring perpetrators to justice,” Trump said. “… I will also end the weaponization of law enforcement against Americans of faith, and I’m releasing the Christians and pro-life activists who were persecuted by the Biden regime for praying and living out their faith. … To all the very special people marching today in this bitter cold, I know your hearts are warm and your spirits are strong because your mission is just very, very pure to forge a society that welcomes and protects every child as a beautiful gift from the hand of our Creator.”

Photo: Alamy