CV NEWS FEED // In a recent op-ed, CatholicVote Director of Accountability Tommy Valentine detailed the reasons behind the organization’s decision to send a letter to the Department of Justice calling for a fair application of the Freedom to Access Clinic Entrances Act against pro-lifers and pro-abortion activists.
On April 22, The Hill published Valentine’s op-ed titled: “Biden’s Justice Department hounds elderly concentration camp survivor, ignores serial church arsonist.”
The op-ed comes after CatholicVote sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on April 9 calling for action in defense of Catholic churches and pro-life centers that have been vandalized and attacked in recent years.
In his op-ed Valentine opened with harrowing details about the early life of pro-life activist Eva Edl, who is a survivor of the post-World War II Gakova communist death camp.
“After years of living in hell, facing death daily, Eva’s family finally escaped to the U.S. They believed that America was free, and that their rights would be protected by a government with their best interests at heart,” Valentine wrote:
Today, the government they trusted is fighting to throw 87-year-old Eva into prison for her pro-life advocacy.
Sadly, Eva’s plight perfectly exemplifies how dangerous the weaponization of the U.S. government has become, and how far the left will go to punish anyone who interferes with their radical agenda.
Edl was recently convicted alongside three other pro-life activists for praying and singing hymns in front of the doors of a Tennessee abortion clinic in 2021. They were convicted under the FACE Act, which, Valentine wrote, “prohibits the use of force, threat of force or physical obstruction to prevent women from obtaining or providing ‘reproductive health care services.’”
“For this, they face up to six months in prison, five years of “supervised release’ and fines up to $10,000,” Valentine continued, noting that the maximum sentence under FACE Act violations is 11 years in prison and fines of $250k.
“Meanwhile, pro-abortion rights extremists firebomb, vandalize and terrorize pro-life centers and Catholic Churches with impunity,” Valentine wrote:
The FBI and Department of Justice have prosecuted nonviolent pro-life offenders with the FACE Act, while turning a blind eye to the violent, ongoing and terrifying attacks on other institutions protected by the FACE Act: churches and pregnancy help centers.
Valentine then highlighted the actions of Elliot Bennett, who, earlier in April, set a Catholic Church on fire in New Jersey–the third act of violence against a church Bennett has committed since 2018.
“Yet the same Justice Department that is fighting to throw Eva in jail failed to prosecute (Bennett) for these multiple and obvious FACE Act violations,” Valentine wrote, noting that the Department has not federally prosecuted any of the 414 vandalisms and attacks against Catholic churches in the United States since May of 2020. The Department also has not substantially addressed the 90 attacks against crisis pregnancy centers that have occurred since May 2022 throughout the States.
The violent pro-abortion protests do not resemble Edl’s prosecuted actions, which were praying and singing in front of the doors of an abortion clinic. These pro-abortion attacks and protests, Valentine wrote, “involved fire-bombings and arson, vandalism of pregnancy clinics and churches, spray painted threats on clinic and church walls, decapitated statues, smashed glass, disrupted masses, blocking of church entrances and even physical attacks on priests and parishioners.”
The inconsistency and double standard in prosecuting under the FACE Act are the central reasons for CatholicVote’s letter to Garland.
“Our letter demanded that the department do its job and defend pro-life Americans from violence,” Valentine wrote. “We have little reason to believe our letter will elicit tangible change. Our past experiences calling on the Justice Department and FBI to fairly enforce the law have been met with stonewalling, empty answers and no meaningful action.”
He concluded, “At the very least, however, we hope that our letter serves as a warning to Americans and to Republicans in Congress who have the opportunity to take a stand against the Biden administration’s weaponized agencies.”
