Amid newly inaugurated President Donald Trump's pardon of nearly 1,500 January 6 protesters, anti-abortion groups are calling on the president to pardon a 76-year-old grandmother and 20 others who were imprisoned and prosecuted for pro-life protests under the Biden Department of Justice.
One group, the Thomas More Society, a law firm specializing in pro-life cases, filed a petition to the new president in which it laid out the legal grounds for him to issue pardons and pointed out how President Joe Biden abused the justice system to target these pro-life activists.
Steve Crampton, a senior counsel at the Thomas More Society, told Fox News Digital that it is "absolutely vital" these activists be pardoned to restore equality under the law.
"We hope by President Trump's actions here that he will restore some sanity and rule of law to the approach of the Department of Justice and the FBI, but also help move this culture back toward a culture of life rather than one of death," said Crampton. "This small act on his part would, in fact, serve to kind of ignite a momentous movement toward restoring a respect for life in this nation that's so desperately needed."
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Trump indicated several times during his campaign that he is open to issuing pardons for some of these pro-lifers who were prosecuted under a federal law called the Freedom of Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The activists were convicted of FACE Act violations for participating in various "sit-in" protests inside abortion clinics in Washington, D.C., Nashville, Detroit, Long Island and Manhattan.
According to the Thomas More Society, Biden's Department of Justice used the FACE Act to increase sentences for crimes that would otherwise have been simple trespassing charges. The group says Biden sought to make examples of these pro-lifers, prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law, despite their sit-in protests inside abortion clinics being entirely peaceful and with no threat of violence or intimidation.
Now that Trump is back in the White House, the Thomas More Society believes he can restore justice for these 21 activists and, in so doing, help restore confidence and trust in the justice system among the American people.
"In my lifetime, I've never seen a president honor his campaign promises the way this president has," said Crampton. "So, we're very hopeful that he will do so again in this case. And for these people who are really just salt of the earth, the best kind of folks that ought to be in their communities doing good rather than behind bars."
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Of the 21 activists prosecuted under the Biden administration's use of the FACE Act, nine are currently in prison. Several of those in prison are elderly, with three, Jean Marshall, Paullette Harlow and Joan Andrews Bell, in their 70s. The eldest is Bell, who, at 76, has seven adult children and seven grandchildren. She was sentenced to over two years in prison.
One activist, Heather Idoni, 59, who was sentenced to two years, has undergone serious health difficulties and suffered a minor stroke while in prison.
The longest prison sentence went to 31-year-old Lauren Handy, who is currently serving a nearly five-year sentence for her role in organizing a 2020 sit-in protest at the Washington, D.C., Surgi-Clinic run by Dr. Cesare Santangelo.
Also facing prison time is 89-year-old Eva Edl, a survivor of a communist concentration camp, who has been active in the pro-life movement for decades.
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"Down is up and up is down in this case," said Crampton. "These people are folks who, some of them, have adopted several special-needs children from places like Ukraine. Some are missionaries to China and Ukraine and the worst places on the planet, going out of their way to do good to people that are in desperate need. These are folks that ought to be receiving those citizenship medals that President Biden is handing out to the likes of George Soros, who is trying to destroy our nation."
"We must restore the rule of law," he went on. "The questioning of Mr. Trump's Cabinet appointees this past week, ironically enough, from the left, points again and again, back to the need not to single out political opponents for prosecution and so forth."
"We have recently undertaken a disrespect for the rule of law that has undermined any respect for authority in general, let alone the law in particular," he said. "So, I really think that this also is a small step back to restoring that absolutely essential respect for the rule of law that we must have if America is to survive."
