With Biden out of power, Republicans are clawing back control. And they aren’t waiting around to compromise.
Now Trump unveiled a fresh executive order that completely changed the game.
President Donald Trump made headlines Thursday by pardoning 23 pro-life activists, issuing the Executive Order just one day before the annual March for Life rally.
These activists had been targeted by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice under the controversial Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Many were sentenced to years behind bars for actions that largely consisted of peaceful protests and prayer outside abortion facilities.
Before signing the order, Trump expressed deep compassion for the individuals being pardoned. “They should not have been prosecuted,” he repeated, shaking his head. “Many of them are elderly,” he added. “This is a great honor to sign.”
Tommy Valentine, director of CatholicVote’s Catholic Accountability Project, commended Trump’s bold action in a statement.
“President Trump’s pardon today of pro-life activists unjustly imprisoned under President Biden is a great credit to his legacy,” Valentine said. “We hope he will go a step further in undoing Biden’s unjust legacy by directing his Department of Justice to evenly enforce the FACE Act, for as long as it is on the books, against violent pro-abortion extremists who have been attacking pregnancy resource centers and churches for years.”
CatholicVote has long documented hundreds of violent attacks on pro-life organizations and churches, pointing out that these incidents were largely ignored by Biden’s DOJ. The group has also supported efforts to repeal the FACE Act, which they say has disproportionately targeted pro-life advocates, even as the majority of abortion-related violence since the overturning of Roe v. Wade has been directed at pro-life groups.
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, a vocal critic of Biden’s DOJ, praised the move in a statement released Thursday morning, before Trump had officially signed the order. “It is tremendous news to hear the news that President Trump will soon pardon the brave pro-life Americans who were unjustly targeted by Biden’s weaponized DOJ,” Hawley wrote. “These Americans are peaceful, pro-life Americans who were singled out and targeted by their government solely because of their beliefs.”
Trump’s pardons provide immediate relief for those currently serving harsh sentences, including:
- Lauren Handy (57 months)
- John Hinshaw (21 months)
- onathan Darnell (34 months)
- Herb Geraghty (27 months)
- Jean Marshall (24 months)
- Joan Bell (27 months)
- Paulette Harlow (24 months)
- Bevelyn Williams (41 months)
- Heather Idoni (24 months)
- Calvin Zastrow (6 months)
Many of the pardoned activists are senior citizens, with a notable number being Catholic.
In June 2024, Trump had promised to prioritize justice for pro-life advocates, vowing that if elected, he would “rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who’s unjustly victimized by the Biden regime… so we can get them out of the gulags and back to their families where they belong.”
Trump’s pardons follow a January 14th letter from the Thomas More Society urging him to act. The letter detailed the “fatally flawed and plainly unjust” convictions of 21 pro-life activists, calling for their release.
One of the most striking stories comes from 89-year-old Eva Edl, a concentration camp survivor who fled Soviet-controlled Yugoslavia before dedicating her life to pro-life advocacy. Still awaiting sentencing for a peaceful protest in Michigan, Edl shared her story with CatholicVote in September.
“I became aware of abortions and abortion clinics existing in the United States in 1988. I saw a group of people in Atlanta, Georgia, blocking an abortion clinic,” Edl said.
“I did not know abortions existed beforehand. And so, I simply said, well, this makes sense, people should have done that for me when I was being shipped into a death camp to be exterminated,” she added.
Trump’s decisive action continues his rapid pace of fulfilling promises. Earlier this week, he pardoned “about 1,500 people who had been charged in connection to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot,” delivering on yet another campaign pledge.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
