OAN Staff Addie Davis
6:52 PM – Tuesday, April 14, 2026
A recent Department of Justice (DOJ) report alleges that the Biden administration weaponized federal law against pro-life Americans.
The department’s Weaponization Working Group detailed what it described as the past administration’s use of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act against pro-life advocates in a nearly 900-page report released Tuesday, based on more than 700,000 internal records.
The FACE Act, passed in 1994, prohibits obstruction that interferes with people seeking “reproductive health services” or exercising religious freedom at a place of worship, as well as other stipulations.
The DOJ’s statement alleged several forms of misconduct in the enforcement of the FACE Act under the Biden administration, including:
- Collaborating with pro-abortion groups to track the First Amendment actions of pro-life activists.
- Prosecutors knowingly withholding evidence requested by the defense counsel, trying to screen out jurors based on religion, and authorizing aggressive arrest tactics instead of allowing pro-life activists to self-surrender.
- Helping a pro-abortion group to secure funding.
- Pursuing significantly harsher sentences for pro-life defendants than “violent” pro-abortion defendants.
- Violating American rights through biased enforcement of the FACE Act.
“This Department will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “No Department should conduct selective prosecution based on beliefs. The weaponization that happened under the Biden Administration will not happen again, as we restore integrity to our prosecutorial system.”
According to the release, abortion-rights organizations—including National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood, and Feminist Majority Foundation—provided information that contributed to investigations of anti-abortion activists. The report alleges that federal prosecutors communicated with these groups about individuals and monitored some activists prior to bringing charges.
The DOJ noted that the lead prosecutor on the FACE Act prosecutions also served as a reference on the National Abortion Federation’s application for a private grant, despite investigators finding no ethics approval for the activity.
Under Biden, the DOJ requested an average sentence of 26.8 months for pro-life defendants, despite pursuing the much lower average sentence of 12.3 months for pro-abortion defendants. This translated to pro-life defendants being sentenced to an average of 14 months, as opposed to the sentence of an average of three months for pro-abortion defendants.
“Though the Act was supposed to protect both pro-choice and pro-life facilities, the Biden DOJ provided extensive support to abortion clinics, while ignoring and downplaying vandalism and attacks against pregnancy resource centers,” the DOJ said.
The report cited the example of a case where prosecutors tried to screen out jurors based on conservative or religious views, referring to Christian pro-life views as “culty.”
In one case, which it lost, the DOJ prosecuted a father whose minor son was attacked by an abortion clinic worker. Prosecutors had denied a request for the father to self-surrender, and instead 16 FBI agents arrived at his home to arrest him. The DOJ settled a civil claim to compensate for the department’s purported misconduct.
On top of providing instances of lawfare by the Biden DOJ, the report also listed efforts of rectification by the department under President Donald Trump.
These include:
- Trump issuing pardons to a number of pro-life Christians targeted by the Biden DOJ.
- The department settling civil cases addressing the injustices, as well as taking personnel action against those responsible.
- Dismissing three civil lawsuits against pro-life activists.
- Issuing a directive that provides stricter guidelines of the abortion-related civil actions and prosecutions that may be brought under the FACE Act.
- Reviewing about 700,000 internal records, with Blanche having approved a limited waiver of privileged information so the public can review the materials.
A government official told CBS News that the DOJ fired at least four prosecutors who were involved with prosecutions under the FACE Act during the last Administration, with Sanjay Patel among those fired on Monday.
According to the New York Post, Patel led a national task force to pursue cases against pro-lifers created shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“The behavior unearthed in this report is shameful,” said Assistant Attorney General Daniel Burrows of the Office of Legal Policy.
“Lawyers who should have known better withheld evidence, worked to keep committed religious people off juries, and generally allowed the Department of Justice to be used as the enforcement arm of pro-abortion special interests,” he continued.
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