Biden weaponised U.S. law to prosecute anti-abortion activists: Justice Department
The Department of Justice under President Donald Trump has revealed that former President Joe Biden weaponised the federal law through the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act to target and prosecute organisations that opposed abortion during his tenure, based on findings from an internal review released on Tuesday.
After examining over 700,000 records, the Justice Department found that Mr Biden’s administration was partial against pro-life activists, collaborating with abortion rights groups like the National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood, and Feminist Majority Foundation to track the operations of entities that did not support abortion.
The FACE Act is meant to protect access to reproductive health clinics and maternity care. The law was enacted in 1994 to criminalise any threat that could block access to reproductive care.
Findings revealed that the Biden administration worked closely with pro-abortion groups to build cases against pro-life organisations.
Prosecutors went as far as withholding evidence that could strengthen the case of the pro-life activists, the review revealed. The DOJ under Mr Biden further pushed for aggressive arrests and “harsher sentences for pro-life defendants than pro-abortion defendants”.
Prosecutors sought 26.8 months of sentencing for pro-life activists, while a 12.3-month sentence was requested for abortion defendants.
“Prosecutors knowingly withheld evidence that defence counsel requested to prepare an affirmative defence, tried to screen out jurors based on religion, and authorised aggressive arrest tactics instead of allowing pro-life defendants to self-surrender,” the DOJ detailed in the report.
The DOJ further stated that Mr Biden’s government pumped funding to abortion clinics while “downplaying vandalism and attacks against pregnancy resource centres”.
“No Department should conduct selective prosecution based on beliefs. The weaponisation that happened under the Biden Administration will not happen again, as we restore integrity to our prosecutorial system,” said acting attorney general Todd Blanche.
Mr Biden has yet to react to the DOJ’s findings.
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