Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Justice today released a 900-page report that is a partisan effort to discredit career prosecutors and civil servants who have spent decades enforcing the nation’s criminal civil rights laws. Among its falsehoods, the report targets the civil servants who faithfully carried out prosecutions for violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act of 1994.
The FACE Act was passed in 1994 with bipartisan support in response to a rise in violent and extreme tactics used by anti-abortion activists, including large-scale clinic blockades and the murder and attempted murder of physicians. For decades, the FACE Act has protected access to reproductive healthcare by safeguarding patients, providers, and facilities from violence, threats of violence, vandalism, and physical obstruction. That includes not only clinics that provide abortions, but also what are known as crisis pregnancy centers, which are run by those seeking to talk women out of abortions.
“A cursory look at the coverage of this report only tells us that over the past 15 months while life has become more difficult for people in this country, the Department of Justice has spent countless hours and taxpayer dollars cherry-picking snippets of emails to create a fictionalized, false narrative to distract from the administration’s failures to make anyone’s life better. This report is a transparent attempt to distract from the president’s failed incursion into Iran, the landslide defeat of the president’s autocratic ally Viktor Orbán, the coverup of the Epstein Files, Pam Bondi’s failures as Attorney General, and the administration’s ongoing efforts to undermine the right of people to vote. Instead of serving the role Congress created it to serve, the DOJ has focused on targeting career prosecutors for doing their jobs and pushing out these career professionals with decades of specialized experience prosecuting hate crimes, human trafficking, law enforcement misconduct, and more,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “The American people will not be easily distracted nor will this sensationalized, fictional report weaken our resolve. We will continue to meet this administration’s harm and lawlessness with swift legal action.”
Earlier this year, Democracy Forward announced Red Line for Civil Rights, a new oversight and accountability project – led by the former Chief and Deputy Chief of the Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section – that tracks, documents, and analyzes changes in the Department’s civil rights enforcement. Through this initiative, the organization has developed an analysis of the Division’s FACE Act work, including cataloging the cases shut down by the Trump-Vance administration and the department’s politicized approach to FACE Act enforcement. A full analysis of today’s report will be released later today.
“This administration would have people believe that career civil servants prosecuted people simply for engaging in religious prayer and expressing anti-abortion beliefs. The enforcement record proves otherwise,” said Regan Rush, Director of Red Line for Civil Rights at Democracy Forward. “This baseless report minimizes serious – and often violent – criminal conduct, and ultimately places women seeking access to medical care, providers, and communities at greater risk.”
Following the sustained anti-abortion campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade and the leak of the Dobbs decision in May 2022, there was a surge in clinic violence and threats that had not been seen at comparable levels for well over a decade. Federal investigators documented numerous arsons, acts of vandalism, threats of violence, and blockades directed at reproductive health facilities across multiple states. The Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorneys’ Offices throughout the country, and FBI responded with increased FACE Act enforcement directed by career lawyers with decades of civil rights and FACE Act experience.
– # # # –
Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.
