Trump speaks out against abortion activists who blocked the clinic

policy

CHICAGO (AP) President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would pardon anti-abortion activists convicted of blocking abortion clinic entrances.

Trump called it “a great honor to sign this.”

“They should not have been prosecuted,” he said as he signed pardons for “peaceful pro-life protesters.”

The pardoners were involved within the invasion and blockade of a clinic in Washington in October 2020.

Lauren Handy was sentenced to almost five years in prison for leading the blockade, leading blockaders to band along with locks and chains to dam the clinic's doors. A nurse sprained her ankle when an individual pushed her as she entered the clinic, and a girl was accosted by one other obstructionist while she was in labor pain, prosecutors said. Police found five fetuses in Handy's home after she was charged.

Trump pardoned Handy and her nine co-defendants: Jonathan Darnel of Virginia; Jay Smith, John Hinshaw and William Goodman, all of New York; Joan Bell of New Jersey; Paulette Harlow and Jean Marshall, each of Massachusetts; Heather Idoni of Michigan; and Herb Geraghty of Pennsylvania.

In the primary week of Trump's presidency, anti-abortion advocates have increased calls for Trump to pardon protesters charged with violating Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, which is meant to guard abortion clinics from obstruction and threats. The 1994 law was passed at a time when clinic protests and blockades were on the rise, as was violence against abortion providers, reminiscent of the murder of Dr. David Gunn in 1993.

Trump specifically mentioned Harlow In a speech in June Criticizing former President Joe Biden's Justice Department for pursuing charges against protesters involved in blockades.

“A lot of people are in prison over this,” he said in June, adding, “We will take care of them immediately.”

Abortion rights advocates hit Trump's pardons as evidence of his opposition to abortion access, despite his vague, contradictory statements on the problem as he tried to navigate the campaign trail between anti-abortion allies and nearly all of Americans who support abortion rights to seek out a middle ground.

“Donald Trump on the campaign trail tried to have it both ways – bragging about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade while saying he wouldn't take action on abortion” The national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All. “We never believed that to be true, and this shows us that we were right.”

SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser thanked Trump for the “immediate promise” to pardon the protesters and argued their prosecutions were political.

Legal group Thomas More Society argued that the face law defendants they represent had been “wrongfully imprisoned” and were “imprisoned”. In a January letter to Trump. The group had assured the defendants that Trump would review their cases and pardon them when he took office.

“Today, freedom rings in our great nation,” said Steve Crampton, senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, adding: “What happened to them can never be erased, but today’s pardons are an enormous step toward restoring justice .”

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, amongst Trump's most loyal supporters, called the prosecution of anti-abortion protesters “a grotesque attack on the principles of this country” and urged Trump to pardon them as they read the stories of such anti-abortion protesters on the Senate floor Thursday . He singled out Eva Edl, who was involved in a 2021 blockade of the Tennessee clinic and whose story has drawn attention from the most important national anti-abortion groups.

Hawley said He “had a great conversation” with Trump on Thursday morning concerning the protesters.

News of the pardons comes ahead of Friday's annual pro-life anti-abortion protest in Washington, where the president will address the gang in a video.