The Wall Street Journal expressed its impatience with Donald Trump's pace in rounding up violent illegal aliens. Pro-life activists have better reason for impatience with the new president over the status of ten imprisoned protestors.

Joe Biden and Merrick Garland used the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act to send them to prison for years. The Department of Justice never applied the same emphasis to those who protested or attacked pro-life centers during the past four years, despite the FACE Act applying to those in the same manner. And most notably, Garland and the DoJ refused to even arrest pro-abortion protestors targeting the homes of Supreme Court justices for protests despite those demonstrations clearly violating federal law. 

Many expected Trump to issue pardons for these ten political prisoners -- it's tough to call them anything else -- at the same time as the J6 'hostages.' The lack of immediate action has them worried, but the Daily Wire's Mary Margaret Olohan reports that Trump plans to address that soon:

President Donald Trump will pardon pro-life activists imprisoned by the Biden Justice Department within days, The Daily Wire has learned.

The plight of the imprisoned pro-lifers is an immediate priority to Trump’s team, and they will likely be pardoned within days, two sources with knowledge of the matter shared with The Daily Wire. The revelation comes a day ahead of the 52nd annual March for Life, a massive peaceful demonstration that takes place in Washington D.C. to bring awareness to the many babies whose lived are ended through abortions. The president is expected to appear at the rally in a pre-recorded video. ...

Trump has repeatedly criticized the Biden DOJ for targeting pro-lifers on “outrageous charges,” promising on the campaign trail to “rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who’s unjustly victimized by the Biden regime…so we can get them out of the gulags and back to their families where they belong.”

The pardons would bring immediate relief to those currently imprisoned including Lauren Handy (57 months in prison), John Hinshaw (21 months), Jonathan Darnell (34 months), Herb Geraghty (27 months), Jean Marshall (24 months), Joan Bell (27 months), Paulette Harlow (24 months), Bevelyn Williams (41 months), Heather Idoni (24 months), and Calvin Zastrow (6 months).

Did these people violate the FACE Act? Juries convicted them of it, and as Olohan notes, they did block access to late-term abortion facilities. However, the draconian sentences received for non-violent protest stand in stark contrast to how the DoJ treated protestors for left-wing causes, and even those who targeted pro-life clinics under the protection of the same FACE Act. Garland claimed that the difference was because the latter acted at night rather than during the day, an excuse that took Beege's breath away at the time. 

Senator Mike Lee grilled Garland at the time, contrasting the lack of emphasis over terrorism at pro-life clinics and raising the issue of the Stasi-like raid on Mark Houck:

Merrick Garland says that the DOJ has prosecuted more pro-lifers for peaceful protests at abortion clinics than domestic terrorists firebombing pregnancy resource centers because the pro-lifers are doing it during the day and the centers are being bombed at night. pic.twitter.com/8abeyZiHLX

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 1, 2023

Lee isn't waiting around for another Democrat administration to weaponize government against pro-life activists. He and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) have introduced a bill to repeal the FACE Act to get the federal government out of local policing around clinics of either type:

Sen. Mike Lee will reintroduce a bill Thursday to repeal the FACE Act, which has been weaponized against at least 50 pro-life advocates.

“[Former President] Joe Biden’s unjust weaponization of the FACE Act against pro-life activists and people of faith belongs in the dustbin of history,” Lee, R-Utah, told The Daily Signal. “While President [Donald] Trump is stopping these outrageous prosecutions, we should ensure that no future administration has the ability to persecute Americans through unequal application of the law.” ... 

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, released the House companion on Tuesday.

“Americans just spent the last four years being targeted by a weaponized justice system,” Roy said. “The FACE Act was one of the primary weapons of abuse—being used to politically target, arrest, and jail pro-life Americans for speaking out and standing up for life.”

The 21 convicted pro-lifers, many of whom are represented by Catholic law firm Thomas More Society, officially asked Trump to grant them “full and unconditional pardons” on Jan. 15.

That again prompts the question: where are those pardons? Trump may want to time their release with tomorrow's March for Life in Washington DC, but every day in prison is another injustice for these ten Americans who clearly got punished for their beliefs more than their actions. They have done more than enough time, to the extent that they should have done any at all while the same Garland and Biden looked the other way when actual violence took place that was more favorable to their own political agendas. 

Free the Ten ... and then make sure that future Attorneys General no longer have any authority to intervene in local law-enforcement business around clinics. Garland and Biden proved all too well that the federal government simply can't be trusted with that authority. 

Update:  Ask and ye shall receive! Trump issued pardons to 23 pro-life activists just a few minutes ago:

TRUMP: “They should not have been prosecuted... Ridiculous.”
23 free! President Donald Trump signs pardon in Oval office for 23 pro-life imprisoned abortion protestors. pic.twitter.com/x5sK9aCnsj

— EWTN News Nightly (@EWTNNewsNightly) January 23, 2025