Abortion clinics and the people who rely on them are under attack.

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act was passed in 1994 to protect abortion providers and patients from threats, violence, and physical obstruction when trying to access care. For decades, FACE has been a critical tool in ensuring safe access to reproductive health care.

Now, those protections are being gutted.

In January 2025, President Trump pardoned 23 anti-abortion extremists convicted of violating the FACE Act — including, in one example, individuals who violently forced their way into a D.C. abortion clinic. At that clinic, the people Trump pardoned did activities like the following: created a blockade using ropes and chains on the doors, forcing a patient to climb through a window to receive life-saving care, shoved a patient laying on the floor in pain while she waited to receive an abortion for her non-viable pregnancy, and injured a nurse. This was not peaceful protest. It was an organized act of intimidation.

Soon after, Trump’s Department of Justice issued internal guidance stating that it would only enforce the FACE Act in “extraordinary circumstances” essentially signaling to clinic harassers that they can act with impunity.

It doesn’t stop there. National anti-abortion groups are escalating their attacks. The Heritage Foundation, a powerful architect of Trump’s agenda, is now pushing for a full repeal of the FACE Act, stripping away the last federal protections clinics have left.

Now, just days after a fertility clinic was bombed in California, Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) reintroduced legislation to repeal the FACE Act entirely. This is not a coincidence; it is part of a full-scale assault on reproductive health care.

When protections like the FACE Act are weakened, violence rises. Since the fall of Roe, we’ve seen more incidents of stalking, vandalism, doxxing, and harassment. Protesters scream at patients, film them without consent, and block their path to care.

This is not normal. And it cannot be allowed to continue.