Red Flag #3: Gutted Protections Shielding Reproductive Health Clinics, Providers, and Patients from Violence

Red Flag #3:
Gutted Protections Shielding Reproductive Health Clinics, Providers, and Patients from Violence

Since its passage with strong bipartisan support in 1994, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act has been critical in safeguarding both patients and abortion providers from violence and harassment. Now, the Trump administration has broadly stopped enforcing this important law.

• Need or provide reproductive health care? President Trump has given a green light to anti-abortion extremists to threaten your safety with impunity.

• Mere days into his second term, President Trump issued pardons for 23 people convicted of violating the FACE Act.
  • Many of those pardoned were serving prison sentences for physically blocking patients from accessing health clinics that provide abortion care. In fact, several people pardoned by President Trump had blocked patients from entering a Michigan clinic represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
  • Some of the other violent offenses committed included breaking into clinics, stealing fetal tissue, and harassing pregnant patients.
  • Abortion providers across the country are terrified for the safety of their staff and patients. The pardons are a get-out-of-jail-free card inviting anti-abortion extremists to continue and intensify their attacks on reproductive health clinics.
• The Department of Justice (DOJ) also announced that it would broadly stop enforcing the FACE Act going forward except in extraordinary circumstances. Now, abortion providers face even greater threats to the safety of their staff and patients—and those threats are met with impunity.
  • Under previous administrations, clinics could count on the DOJ to enforce the law and protect clinics against violence regardless of a president’s views on abortion. No more. President Trump has left patients and providers to fend for themselves against those who will go to extremes to block access to life-saving health care.
  • Enforcement of the FACE Act is needed now more than ever. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 and dozens of clinics in abortion ban states were forced to close, there has been a sharp increase in violence against clinics, staff, and patients in states that protect access to care. According to the National Abortion Federation’s (NAF) statistics from that year, there was a 538% increase in people obstructing clinic entrances, a 913% increase in stalking of clinic staff, and a 133% increase in bomb threats in protective states.
  • Even with this law in place, anti-abortion activists have threatened to kill providers, have bombed their clinics, and have harassed their patients. NAF’s 2023 and 2024 statistics unequivocally demonstrate a pattern of sustained and consistent harassment and violence despite continued clinic closures and abortion becoming even more difficult to access in some areas. It’s clear that the FACE Act is not enough—at bare minimum, the Trump administration should be enforcing the law to its fullest extent.