The president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Thursday that he has pardoned 23 anti-abortion activists convicted of blocking entrance to clinics to terminate the pregnancy, one day before the March for Life against the legalization of this practice takes place.
«They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people. It is a great honor to sign this. “They will be very happy,” he declared to the journalists present at the Oval Office during the signing of the presidential pardon.
Those pardoned were accused of violate the Law on Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE), which since it was enacted in 1994, makes it a federal crime to use “threats of force, obstruction, or damage to property with the intent to interfere with reproductive health care services.” », reports the newspaper ‘The Hill’.
Among them is a group of activists prosecuted for forcing their way into an abortion clinic in Washington in October 2020. In particular, they tied themselves with chains and padlocks and physically obstructed clinic staff and patients during the lockdownwhich was broadcast live on social networks. The blockade lasted several hours before the Police arrested the participants.
Trump made the announcement in eve of the March for Lifea protest that takes place every year through the streets of Washington to protest against abortion, a practice that was legalized in 1973 by the United States Supreme Court.
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