WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed an executive order pardoning 23 anti-abortion rights activists on Thursday, one day before he was expected to address thousands of anti-abortion rights protesters in Their annual march on Washington.
“Twenty-three people were tried, and they should not have been tried,” Trump said at the signing ceremony in the Oval Office on Thursday, noting that “many of them” were elderly. “This is a great honor to sign. They will be very happy.”
Some of them are in prison, Will Scharf, White House staff secretary, told Trump as he stood next to him. None of their names were immediately released. Conservatives accused the Biden administration of using a 1994 law that protects abortion clinics, providers and patients to target peaceful protesters.
Congress passed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in response to increasing violence against abortion providers and their patients, with the goal of allowing people to access these services safely. It also protects First Amendment religious rights. Property damage can be sued under the law.
Many people They were prosecuted under the law in the 2021 siege of a reproductive health care clinic in Washington, DC.
Clemency advocates say the Biden administration has used the Freedom of Access Act to unfairly prosecute anti-abortion rights protesters. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, reintroduced legislation this week to repeal the measure.
The annual March for Life kicks off along the National Mall on Friday, marking the third time the demonstration has been held since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022. Trump is expected to address the crowd virtually, while Vice President J.D. Vance will speak in person.
Trump during his election campaign I resonated with his message about abortion While he was looking for a middle political ground that would allow him to do so His coalition grows And winning the elections. Sometimes He seemed uneasy about how to proceed.
But he promised at the 2023 “Prayer for the Vote” summit that if he wins he will appoint a task force to “rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who has been unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration” and that “the federal government will never be used again.” To target religious believers.”
Trump signed He has taken dozens of executive actions since his inauguration Monday, including pardoning more than 1,500 people involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
By Trump’s second day in office, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., issued a public plea for clemency for the defendants, who he claimed had been “unfairly targeted and imprisoned by the Biden administration” because of their anti-abortion rights beliefs. , He says Trump On social media they “deserve to be free.”
