type: timeline_event
DOJ Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle issued a memorandum on January 24, 2025, ordering staff to limit enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act to only "extraordinary circumstances" such as cases involving death or serious property damage. The memo prohibits abortion-related FACE Act actions unless authorized by the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, reversing decades of clinic protection policy.
New DOJ leaders characterized past enforcement of the FACE Act as "the prototypical example" of what they called "the weaponization of law enforcement." The department subsequently dropped three pending FACE Act cases, including prosecutions against Matthew Connolly and two cases involving blockades against clinics in Ohio and Tennessee. President Trump pardoned 23 people previously convicted under the FACE Act.
The FACE Act, passed by Congress in 1994 with bipartisan support, was enacted to prevent rising violence against abortion clinics and providers, including the 1993 murder of Dr. David Gunn by an anti-abortion extremist. The law prohibits threat of force, obstruction, and property damage meant to interfere with reproductive health care services.
Melissa Fowler of the National Abortion Federation stated that "The FACE Act has been incredibly effective at curbing some of the major types of violence and obstruction that we saw really escalating in the early nineties," but noted that enforcement rollback was "really unprecedented." Abortion-rights advocates warned the policy change gives a "green light to anyone who wants to disrupt abortion centers in the future" with no federal consequences. Representatives Sean Casten, Jan Schakowsky, and Jerrold Nadler led 72 House Democrats in demanding the DOJ fully enforce the FACE Act, but were ignored.