A group of Republican lawmakers wrote FBI Director Christopher Wray to request information on the rash of arrests and indictments of nonviolent pro-life activists.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and 38 of their colleagues sent a letter Wednesday to Wray demanding a briefing from the FBI on its use of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) Act.
Then-President Bill Clinton signed the FACE Act into law in May 1994. It protects all patients, providers, and facilities that provide reproductive health.
“The recent rise in high-profile FBI investigations into pro-life Americans raises well-founded concerns that the FBI has amassed too much power and has become a partisan cudgel wielded by the Biden Administration at the behest of progressive activists against political opponents and dissenters,” the lawmakers wrote to Wray.
In one recent example of the FACE Act’s enforcement, pro-life activist Mark Houck was handcuffed by FBI agents and arrested in front of his children. The 48-year-old Houck later was charged with physically assaulting a patient escort at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philadelphia nearly a year ago — charges that had already been dismissed by state and local law enforcement.
“Overzealous prosecutions under the FACE Act weaponize the power of federal law enforcement against American citizens in what should firmly be state and local matters,” the lawmakers wrote.
“Further, these abuses of federal power against pro-life Americans based solely on their beliefs undermine the American people’s trust in the FBI. This is particularly true since there have been no reports of FBI investigations or DOJ prosecutions in relation to the more than 72 pregnancy resource centers and 80 Catholic churches that have been attacked or vandalized since the Dobbs leak — heinous, violent, and organized crimes across state lines that are also subject to prosecution under the FACE Act.”
