House Committee Votes To Repeal Law That Protects Abortion Clinics From Violence

A Republican effort to repeal a federal law barring violence against reproductive health clinics and houses of worship won the backing of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and now heads to the full House for consideration.

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act was passed by Congress in 1994, one year after an anti-abortion activist murdered abortion clinic director Dr. David Gunn by shooting him in the back three times. Six months later, Dr. George Tiller was also shot outside his clinic in Kansas by an anti-abortion activist. Tiller survived that attempt on his life, though he would be killed 15 years later by another anti-abortion activist.

The act, signed by then-Democratic President Bill Clinton, made it a federal crime to use or threaten force or otherwise physically obstruct people from obtaining or providing reproductive health care. That includes abortion clinics and crisis pregnancy centers, which typically take an anti-abortion view when counseling patients. It also protects places of religious worship from similar types of blockades and violence.

After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022 and President Donald Trump’s reelection two years later, there has been a resurgence of calls for clinic protests. Trump’s administration also issued federal pardons to at least 23 people convicted of violating the law. In January, the Department of Justice under Trump said it would no longer enforce violations of the statute except in the most extreme cases, such as murder or significant property damage.

“They’re essentially putting the statute into an administrative straitjacket so MAGA in Congress can give it the legislative guillotine,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, during the hearing. “This administration is sending out disturbing signals when it comes to violence against women.”

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, introduced House Bill 589 in January, saying the FACE Act has been weaponized — particularly by former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022 — against anti-abortion protesters. The act was also disparagingly referenced several times in Project 2025, the blueprint document produced by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative advocacy group. The document did not call for full repeal, but instead said it should be reviewed. Roy appeared at a Heritage Foundation event in March and vowed he would fight for the bill to be heard.

After about two hours of debate Tuesday, it passed in a 13-10 vote, along party lines.

Roy said he knew it would be hotly debated and viewed as political, but he wanted it to be clear that he has reservations and concerns about overcriminalization in general and creating federal crimes out of issues like this one.

He also acknowledged that he’s gotten pushback from people within Trump’s administration, who he said have talked about using the law for their own purposes, such as defending churches.

“That’s not what my goal is,” Roy said during the hearing. “My goal is to alleviate the politicization in the first place.”

Roy and other Republicans on the committee said the Biden administration targeted “little old ladies” who were merely praying outside an abortion clinic and put them in jail, but the woman he referenced was charged in connection with a group of people who live-streamed themselves blockading two clinic doors with their bodies, furniture, chains and ropes. The woman’s own attorney said it was not accurate to describe her activities as just praying, according to a fact check from Reuters.

Between 1977 and 2009, the National Abortion Federation counted nine murders, 17 attempted murders, 179 incidents of assault or battery against clinic workers, and 41 bombings, among other instances of vandalism, arson and bomb threats at clinics. An anti-abortion group that began as Operation Rescue in 1986 was infamous for leading the movement to obstruct access to abortion clinics, with activists sometimes chaining themselves to equipment or blocking doors with parked cars.

“When the FACE Act is being enforced, it is an effective and important tool to keep abortion providers and their patients safe,” said Julie Gonen, chief legal officer at the National Abortion Federation, in an emailed statement. “It is unconscionable to see anti-abortion legislators trying to repeal a law that has been keeping people safe for decades.”

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., was the only Republican on the committee to say he did not support a full repeal. He agreed that the act was “abused” by the Biden administration, but said that wasn’t a reason to repeal the law and it should instead be amended to tighten its enforcement.

One of two Republican women on the House committee, Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, is a co-sponsor of the bill and said prior Democratic administrations ignore when “real terrorism” is carried out.

“It has become just one more tool in the anti-life, anti-humanist, anti-American tool kit based on forgiving the unforgivable and criminalizing our reverence for life,” Hageman said. “As a result, it’s time for it to go, and I support the [repeal of] the FACE Act.”

Several Democratic congresswomen spoke against the bill, including Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania. She said everyone should condemn political violence committed anywhere, but by repealing the FACE Act, Republicans would be inviting anti-abortion extremists to use violence and threats of intimidation to block access to abortion care everywhere.

“No one should be denied medical care because of someone else’s religious or political beliefs, and everyone deserves the freedom to provide or seek appropriate medical care without threats to their safety,” Scanlon said.