Amid abortion foes’ celebrations, U.S. limits prosecutions for blocking abortion clinics

WASHINGTON —  The new Justice Department leadership under President Trump issued an order Friday to curtail prosecutions against people accused of blocking reproductive rights facilities, calling the cases an example of the “weaponization” of law enforcement.

Justice Department Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle said in a memo that prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, will now be permitted only in “extraordinary circumstances” or in cases presenting ”significant aggravating factors.”

The announcement came hours after Trump vowed to support tens of thousands of abortion opponents at an antiabortion march. And it came a day after Trump pardoned several antiabortion activists convicted of invading and blockading abortion clinic entrances in violation of the FACE Act.

Mizelle also ordered the immediate dismissal of three civil FACE Act cases related to 2021 blockades of clinics in Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Ohio. One man was accused of obtaining “illegal access to a secure patient space at a Planned Parenthood facility in Philadelphia without staff permission or knowledge” and barricading himself in a restroom, according to court papers.

Trump has directed federal agencies to “correct the past weaponization of law enforcement,” Mizelle wrote in the memo, obtained by the Associated Press.

“To many Americans, prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (‘FACE Act’) have been the prototypical example of this weaponization,” he wrote.

At the antiabortion march in Washington, Trump declared in a prerecorded address, “We will again stand proudly for families and for life.”

People walk in an annual antiabortion march from the Washington Monument to the Supreme Court on Friday.

(Ben Curtis / Associated Press)

Vice President JD Vance appeared in person, telling the crowd that the president “delivered on his promise of ending” Roe vs. Wade, which had guaranteed the right to abortion nationwide for nearly half a century, and appointed hundreds of antiabortion judges.

Abortion was largely absent from the stack of dozens of executive actions in Trump’s first days of office. But he has made quieter moves on abortion, including pardoning antiabortion activists who invaded and blocked abortion clinics and using wording related to fetal personhood in an executive order rolling back protections for transgender people.

Protesters had come to the capital since 1974 to call for an end to Roe vs. Wade, which the Supreme Court adopted the year before; it was repealed by the high court in 2022.

“We have a march every year, but this one is pretty special,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group. “There is a trifecta of pro-life Republicans in the White House and the House and the Senate.”

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said she’d like to see Trump defund Planned Parenthood and more focus on making sure women with unplanned pregnancies have the resources to have the child, such as paid family leave and expanded child tax care credit.

Angela Vasquez-Giroux, vice president of communications at Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which supports abortion rights, said: “We know exactly what is at risk and we know the hate and lies they will spew at the March for Life.”

The battle over abortion since the 2022 decision to end Roe, Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, has been in state courts and at the ballot box. Voters in seven states approved ballot measures for constitutional amendments upholding reproductive freedom in November, and more states could see ballot measures in coming years. But some legislatures have aimed to make such measures more difficult to pass.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis boasted to marchers about his role in the state-funded campaign that helped defeat a 2024 abortion rights measure in his state. More than 57% of voters there supported the state constitutional amendment, but unlike most states, Florida requires 60% to pass such amendments.

Supporters of abortion rights spoke up, too.

“No matter what they said on the campaign trail to win an election, this shows their intentions to continue to attack abortion access,” Ryan Stitzlein of the national organization Reproductive Freedom for All said of abortion opponents.

“Each time one of these has taken place since the Dobbs decision, it’s been a day to reflect on how much damage that’s been caused by that decision and the crisis we continue to live in.”

Fernando, Fields, Khalil and Richer write for the Associated Press.