President Donald J. Trump is issuing pardons for 23 pro-life activists who were prosecuted and imprisoned by the Biden-Harris government. The move comes on the heels of Trump’s mass clemency order for over 1,500 January 6 Capitol riot defendants shortly after he was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States on Monday.
“This is a great honor to sign this,” Trump said while signing the executive order:
🚨 BREAKING: President Donald J. Trump grants pardons to peaceful pro-life protesters prosecuted by the Biden administration over exercising their First Amendment rights. pic.twitter.com/XwzU4dEJt8
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 23, 2025
The pardons come just before Friday as the 52nd annual March for Life is held in Washington, D.C. Among those receiving clemency are John Hinshaw, Jonathan Darnell, Lauren Handy, Calvin Zastrow, Herb Geraghty, Jean Marshall, Heather Idoni, Paulette Harlow, Bevelyn Williams, and Joan Bell. Each was sentenced to around two years or more in prison for violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act), a statute signed into law by former President Bill Clinton that has dubiously been used to prosecute peaceful protesters outside abortion clinics.
“I had a great conversation this morning with [President Donald J. Trump] about the pro-life prisoners unjustly persecuted and imprisoned by the corrupt Biden Administration,” wrote Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), a close ally of Trump, on Thursday, just hours before the President announced the clemency orders. “I urged him to pardon them swiftly. They have done nothing wrong!”
During Joe Biden’s term in the White House, his Department of Justice (DOJ) aggressively persecuted pro-life activists under the direction of Kristen Clarke, an assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s civil rights division. Clarke became infamous for pushing highly partisan prosecutions and stretching legal statutes to create the appearance of a crime when arguably none existed.
The radical assistant attorney general went so far as to prosecute an 89-year-old Yugoslavian communist concentration camp survivor for her participation in a pro-life protest.