Once designed to safeguard patients and providers, the FACE Act is now being twisted into a tool for political repression … while clinic violence goes unchecked.
As unbelievable as it sounds, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has deployed the FACE Act—not against antiabortion extremists who invade clinics and terrorize patients, but against journalists documenting political protests and peaceful activists decrying the killing of Renee Good by federal ICE agents.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances and Places of Religious Worship (FACE) Act, a law designed primarily to protect abortion providers, clinic staff and patients, is being perverted by the DOJ as part of its broader effort to deny freedom of the press and undermine the rule of law.
The DOJ has criminally charged nine people, including two journalists, under the FACE Act for entering a church to speak out against a pastor who is reportedly the acting field director for ICE in Minneapolis. The high-profile and highly unusual arrests of journalist and former CNN anchor Don Lemon and independent Minneapolis journalist Georgia Fort, along with several peaceful activists, underscore the Trump administration’s latest attack on the rule of law, freedom of speech, and the right to assembly.
The Trump administration purposefully ignored clinic invasions and blockades by antiabortion extremist groups in 2025—all while reproductive health clinic staff and patients have experienced a dramatic surge in threats and violence.
- Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling in 2022, reports of clinic obstructions have risen from 45 in 2021, to 777 in 2023 and 2024 combined.
- In addition to reports of obstruction, there were 621 trespassing incidents and 296 death threats or threats of other harm.
- In 2023 and 2024, there were three arson cases and 13 clinic invasions.
The Center for Reproductive Rights Fights Back
They are allowing situations where an antiabortion protester brings an assault rifle to weekend protests at a clinic. The goal is fear.
Liz McCaman Taylor, the Center for Reproductive Rights
The Center for Reproductive Rights has filed two lawsuits related to the DOJ’s selective use of the FACE Act.
In an interview, Liz McCaman Taylor, senior federal policy counsel at the Center, said, “The government is deciding to enforce the FACE Act for religious sites but actively choosing not to enforce the law to protect patients and providers at clinics. Clinics are left to fend for themselves in this environment of terror.”
Immediately upon assuming office, Trump pardoned 23 antiabortion extremists—all convicted under the FACE Act. His DOJ ordered prosecutors to dismiss three pending civil FACE cases and to stop enforcing the FACE Act, except in “extraordinary circumstances.”
The first suit, filed in August 2025, seeks clarification on the administration’s announcement that the FACE Act would be used only in “extraordinary circumstances.”
“We need to know how bad they intend to let things get,” McCaman Taylor told Ms. “They are allowing situations where an antiabortion protester brings an assault rifle to weekend protests at a clinic. The goal is fear. That type of fear, that type of threat, is allowed.”
The second case demands documentation justifying Trump’s pardons for 23 extremists convicted of FACE Act violations and the dismissal of ongoing FACE cases.
“The goal of the lawsuits is to lean on multiple branches of the government to hold the administration accountable,” said McCaman Taylor, “to highlight that they are not only abusing the law, but they are also attacking women.”
Congressional Action to Enforce the FACE Act
In the wake of increased clinic violence across the U.S., 75 members of Congress signed a letter in March 2025 asking the DOJ to “fully enforce the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and ensure women and health care providers are not threatened, harassed, or abused while trying to enter reproductive health care facilities.”
The DOJ’s response has been to find ways to turn the FACE Act against pro-choice protesters and other activists.
From Clinic Protection to Political Prosecution: Other Ways the FACE Act Is Being Abused
Both Attorney General Pam Bondi and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon publicly vowed to refocus the FACE Act to protect crisis pregnancy centers from pro-choice protesters. However, they quickly adopted this new strategy of targeting political protesters.
In September 2025, the DOJ used the FACE Act’s civil injunction power against pro-Palestinian protesters who demonstrated at a synagogue in Orange, N.J., in November 2024, before Trump even took office.
The fight to restore the FACE Act to its original purpose—and to protect the rights it was meant to safeguard—has only begun.
“The Center is laser-focused on reproductive rights, and we will have the receipts to show what this administration did to harm women,” said McCaman Taylor.
Great Job Teresa Cisneros Burton & the Team @ Ms. Magazine for sharing this story.
