Trump pardons anti-abortion activists involved in clinic blockades
President Donald Trump announced Thursday he would pardon anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances.
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Trump called it 바카라 게임 웹사이트a great honor to sign this.바카라 게임 웹사이트
"They should not have been prosecuted," he said as he signed pardons for "peaceful pro-life protesters.바카라 게임 웹사이트
The people pardoned were involved in the October 2020 invasion and blockade of a Washington clinic.
Lauren Handy was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for leading the blockade by directing blockaders to link themselves together with locks and chains to block the clinic바카라 게임 웹사이트s doors. A nurse sprained her ankle when one person pushed her while entering the clinic, and a woman was accosted by another blockader while having labor pains, prosecutors said. Police found five fetuses in Handy바카라 게임 웹사이트s home after she was indicted.
Trump pardoned Handy and her nine co-defendants: Jonathan Darnel of Virginia; Jay Smith, John Hinshaw and William Goodman, all of New York; Joan Bell of New Jersey; Paulette Harlow and Jean Marshall, both of Massachusetts; Heather Idoni of Michigan; and Herb Geraghty of Pennsylvania.
In the first week of Trump바카라 게임 웹사이트s presidency, anti-abortion advocates have ramped up calls for Trump to pardon protesters charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which is designed to protect abortion clinics from obstruction and threats. The 1994 law was passed during a time where clinic protests and blockades were on the rise, as was violence against abortion providers, such as the murder of Dr. David Gunn in 1993.
Trump specifically mentioned Harlow in a criticizing former President Joe Biden바카라 게임 웹사이트s Department of Justice for pursuing charges against protesters involved in blockades.
바카라 게임 웹사이트Many people are in jail over this,바카라 게임 웹사이트 he said in June, adding, 바카라 게임 웹사이트We바카라 게임 웹사이트re going to get that taken care of immediately.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Abortion rights advocates slammed Trump바카라 게임 웹사이트s pardons as evidence of his opposition to abortion access, despite his vague, contradictory statements on the issue as he attempted to find a middle ground on the campaign trail between anti-abortion allies and the majority of Americans who support abortion rights.
바카라 게임 웹사이트Donald Trump on the campaign trail tried to have it both ways 바카라 게임 웹사이트 bragging about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade while saying he wasn바카라 게임 웹사이트t going to take action on abortion,바카라 게임 웹사이트 said Ryan Stitzlein, vice president of political and government relations for the national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All. 바카라 게임 웹사이트We never believed that that was true, and this shows us that we were right.바카라 게임 웹사이트
The legal group Thomas More Society argued the FACE Act defendants they represent had been 바카라 게임 웹사이트unjustly imprisoned.바카라 게임 웹사이트
바카라 게임 웹사이트They have been heartened during their imprisonment and unjust prosecutions by your repeated messages to them during your campaign, urging them to persevere until you were able to take office, review their cases, and free them,바카라 게임 웹사이트 the legal group said in a to Trump.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, among Trump바카라 게임 웹사이트s most loyal supporters, called the prosecution of anti-abortion protesters 바카라 게임 웹사이트a grotesque assault on the principles of this country바카라 게임 웹사이트 and urged Trump to pardon them while reading the stories of such anti-abortion protesters on the Senate floor Thursday. He highlighted Eva Edl, who was involved in a 2021 Tennessee clinic blockade and whose story has garnered attention from the largest national anti-abortion groups.
he 바카라 게임 웹사이트had a great conversation바카라 게임 웹사이트 Thursday morning with Trump about the protesters.
The news of the pardons comes ahead of Friday바카라 게임 웹사이트s annual anti-abortion protest March for Life in Washington, where the president is expected to address the crowd in a video.