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Star Parker, founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), and Marty Dannenfelser, CURE’s vice president of Government Relations and Coalitions, joined other high-profile conservatives in signing a letter urging the repeal of the Federal Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
The FACE Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, bars the use of force or intimidation against anyone trying to access an abortion clinic or pregnancy center, exercising their right to religious freedom, or intentionally destroying or damaging such a facility or place of worship.
But the letter’s signers called the legislation unconstitutional and used by the Biden administration to “intimidate, harass, and punish its political opponents.” An excerpt of the memo:
An honest legal review of the FACE Act (18 U.S.C. § 248) shows it is constitutionally suspect. Congress claimed jurisdiction to enact it under the much-abused Commerce Clause and Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Yet it failed to address how even that approach would justify this granting of general police power that is traditionally reserved for the states. Given the topic of the legislation, prohibiting actions to block access to abortion clinics, if its constitutional underpinnings were suspect then, they have entirely crumbled now that the U.S. Supreme Court has admitted there is no constitutional right to abortion.
The signers accuse the Biden administration of abusing the law to punish pro-lifers.
In September, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) got convictions against three peaceful pro-life activists who now face “a maximum of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $350,000.” Two of the women charged are over seventy years of age.
Fortunately for pro-lifer Mark Houck, mentioned in the letter and charged under the FACE Act, a federal grand jury acquitted him. Peter Breen, Thomas More Society executive vice president and head of litigation, said the FACE Act “never intended to cover disputes between advocates on the public sidewalks outside of our nation’s abortion clinics.”
The conservatives who signed the letter would agree. You can read the full memo at the Conservative Action Project.
Photo credit: American Life League (Creative Commons) – Some Rights Reserved
