"Two days after his second inauguration, one of Donald Trump's first actions of his second presidency was to pardon nearly two dozen anti-abortion extremists, who had violently and illegally barricaded reproductive rights clinics, in some cases injuring staff and patients in the process, and in others, stealing aborted embryos and fetal tissue. At the time, Center for Reproductive Rights President Nancy Northrup told Jezebel the pardons were a "get-out-of-jail-free card inviting anti-abortion extremists to step up their attacks on reproductive health clinics with impunity.""
"The meeting was organized by Randall Terry -who previously founded Operation Rescue, an extreme far-right anti-abortion group that spent the better part of the 1980s and 90s terrorizing abortion clinics. "We're bringing [Operation Rescue] back," one of the activists-who was once involved with Operation Rescue-told MS Now's Julianne McShane. "We're going to disrupt this country as much as we can.""
"The extremists Trump pardoned had been convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a 1994 law that was passed following a spike in violence against abortion providers, including the murder of Dr. David Gunn in 1993. In one case, 10 extremists were sentenced to five years in prison after violently blockading and invading a Washington clinic in 2020; in 2022, authorities found five fetuses in the home of Lauren Handy, who led the blockade."
Two days after his second inauguration, Donald Trump pardoned nearly two dozen anti-abortion extremists. The pardoned individuals had violently and illegally barricaded reproductive rights clinics, sometimes injuring staff and patients, and in other cases stealing aborted embryos and fetal tissue. Dozens of anti-abortion activists, including some pardoned individuals, recently met in Washington, D.C. to plan renewed campaigns of harassment against doctors and patients. The meeting was organized by Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue. Many of the extremists had been convicted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and faced multi-year prison sentences and other serious charges.
#presidential-pardons #anti-abortion-extremism #clinic-violence #freedom-of-access-to-clinic-entrances-act
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