Thomas More Society / Website
CV NEWS FEED // Peter Breen, of the law firm Thomas More Society, testified Feb. 25 before a U.S. House subcommittee, urging Congress to take definitive action against the Biden administration’s targeting of pro-life advocates.
Addressing members of the House Subcommittee on Oversight of the Committee on the Judiciary, Breen outlined how the Department of Justice (DOJ) aggressively pursued criminal and civil cases against peaceful pro-life activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and the Conspiracy Against Rights statute while largely ignoring hundreds of acts of vandalism and violence against pro-life organizations. Breen is Thomas More’s executive vice president and head of litigation.
“The Biden DOJ engaged in a systematic campaign to abuse the power of the federal government against pro-life advocates,” Breen said, “while that same DOJ ignored hundreds of acts of vandalism and violence against pro-life churches, pregnancy help centers, and advocates.”
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Thanking President Donald Trump for his recent pardons of 23 pro-lifers targeted under these prosecutions, Breen said that the move reassured pro-life Americans that they “need not fear the federal government.”
“But now that the president has acted, and our clients are home and their criminal records are wiped clean, is the matter concluded?” Breen said.”Absolutely not.”
According to Breen, the legal threat is far from over because the long statutes of limitation on federal laws leave pro-life advocates vulnerable to future prosecutions under different administrations.
“Many of the Biden prosecutions were for actions that occurred during the first Trump Administration,” Breen noted. “And the DOJ’s recent dismissals were ordered on the basis of selective prosecution, not because the underlying laws don’t apply to the conduct.”
Breen highlighted the cases of Paul Vaughn, a father of 11 who was convicted under the FACE Act, despite not blocking clinic access, and Mark Houck, a Catholic father of seven who faced a dramatic FBI raid on his home over an altercation with an abortion facility escort. While Houck was acquitted, Breen noted that the DOJ continued investigating other sidewalk disputes, indicating a broader strategy of intimidation.
Breen said lawmakers should take certain steps to restore American citizens’ confidence “that their federal government will not target them unfairly and will even-handedly apply the law.”
He called on Congress to investigate and expose the DOJ’s actions over the past four years.
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” he said.
He also called on lawmakers to push the Trump administration to bring to justice those responsible for attacks on pro-life ministries.
“If the FACE Act is to remain on the books, it should be enforced equally,” he asserted.
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Additionally, he stressed the need for the DOJ to clarify its interpretation of the FACE Act and the Conspiracy Against Rights statute, arguing that federal law should not apply to minor disputes between pro-life sidewalk counselors and abortion facility escorts.
He pointed out that the FACE Act was never intended to cover these interactions, citing statements from the law’s original sponsors.
“Congress intended that the FACE Act not apply to sidewalk squabbles between pro-abortion ‘clinic escorts’ or ‘clinic defenders’ and pro-life sidewalk counselors,” Breen said. “The Senate sponsor of FACE, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), agreed to an amendment with Sen. David Durenberger (R-MN) that clarified the relevant scope of the Act to solely patients and abortion providers in a clinic.”
He described the DOJ’s use of the Conspiracy Against Rights statute as a serious injustice, explaining that the law was originally designed to protect Black Americans’ voting rights from the Ku Klux Klan, not to prosecute pro-life activists.
“The DOJ’s use [of] this statute was a critical injustice in the recent prosecutions of peaceable pro-lifers,” Breen said, “allowing them to be branded as convicted felons and subjecting them to years in a federal penitentiary.”
Further, Breen argued that peaceful pro-life demonstrations should be recognized as First Amendment-protected activity, not criminal obstruction.
