President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday pardoning 23 of the pro-life activists targeted by President Joe Biden’s Justice Department.

“They should not have been prosecuted,” Trump said as he signed the order. “Many of them are elderly people. They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this.”

The pardons are for 23 “peaceful pro-life protesters who were prosecuted by the Biden administration for exercising their First Amendment rights.” They were prosecuted under the FACE Act and a Reconstruction-era felony conspiracy charge first used for the first time against pro-life activists by the Biden administration.

The Thomas More Society, the law firm representing the activists, had asked Trump to pardon 21 pro-lifers: Joan Bell, Coleman Boyd, Joel Curry, Jonathan Darnel, Eva Edl, Chester Gallagher, William Goodman, Dennis Green, Lauren Handy, Paulette Harlow, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall, Fr. Fidelis Moscinski, Justin Phillips, Paul Place, Paul Vaughn, Bevelyn Beatty Williams, Calvin Zastrow, Eva Zastrow, and James Zastrow. 

(Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

“Today, freedom rings in our great nation,” said Steve Crampton, senior counsel for the Thomas More Society. “The heroic peaceful pro-lifers unjustly imprisoned by Biden’s Justice Department will now be freed and able to return home to their families, eat a family meal, and enjoy the freedom that should have never been taken from them in the first place.”

Peter Breen, the executive vice president of the firm, added: “Today is a new day for the pardoned pro-life advocates who have suffered FBI raids, federal prosecutions, and severe punishment for peacefully and courageously witnessing for life. We thank President Trump for keeping his promise to these pro-life mothers, fathers, grandparents, pastors, and priests.”

“What happened to these peaceful pro-life individuals must never happen again,” he said in a statement. “We urge Congress to act swiftly in repealing the FACE Act to make sure that the Justice Department can never again weaponize this law to target peaceful pro-lifers with severe charges.” 

Many of those pardoned were convicted multiple times in trials in Washington, D.C., Nashville, Manhattan, and Detroit. While sentencing has not been completed in each case, several pro-lifers were already serving lengthy prison sentences. 

In D.C., a group of pro-life protesters sang songs, prayed, locked arms in front of the facility’s staff entrance, and attached themselves with ropes and chains to block doors inside the infamous Surgi-Clinic in October 2020, a late-term abortion facility. 

Those who were imprisoned over the D.C. protest include Lauren Handy (57 months in prison), John Hinshaw (21 months), William Goodman (27 months), Jonathan Darnell (34 months), Herb Geraghty (27 months), Jean Marshall (24 months), Joan Bell (27 months), Paulette Harlow (24 months), and Heather Idoni (24 months).

In Tennessee, a group of pro-life Christians gathered in a hall outside the Carafem Health Center in Mt. Juliet where they sang hymns, prayed, and urged women not to get abortions in March 2021. Calvin Zastrow, 63, is currently serving a six-month prison sentence over the protest and 75-year-old Chester Gallagher was sentenced to 16 months though he has not had to report to prison yet. 

In New York, Bevelyn Beatty Williams was sentenced to serve 41 months in prison after she was convicted of violating the FACE Act after she blocked the entrance to an abortion facility in Manhattan. 

The pardons should also bring relief to those who were awaiting sentencing, including 89-year-old Eva Edl. Edl, who survived a World War II-era Yugoslavian concentration camp, was convicted in both Nashville and Detroit and could have been sentenced to over a decade in prison over her convictions on FACE and a felony conspiracy charge.

When passed in 1994, the FACE Act was supposed to protect both churches and clinics, but the law has almost exclusively been used to prosecute pro-lifers. Data obtained by Roy shows that 97% of FACE Act cases brought by the Justice Department have been against pro-life Americans. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) renewed an effort to repeal the FACE Act this week, pointing out how it has been disproportionately used against pro-lifers. 

The response to the pardons has already been positive with Republican lawmakers and conservative activists praising the decision.

“President Trump’s pardon today of pro-life activists unjustly imprisoned under President Biden is a great credit to his legacy,” CatholicVote’s Tommy Valentine said. “We hope he will go a step further in undoing Biden’s unjust legacy by directing his Department of Justice to evenly enforce the FACE Act, for as long as it is on the books, against violent pro-abortion extremists who have been attacking pregnancy resource centers and churches for years.”

The news came shortly after the Daily Wire reported that Trump would pardon the pro-life activists within a matter of days. The plight of the imprisoned pro-lifers is an immediate priority to Trump’s team, two sources with knowledge of the matter shared with The Daily Wire.

Friday is the 52nd annual March for Life, where Vice President JD Vance will publicly speak for the first time since he was sworn into office, as The Daily Wire first reported on Thursday.

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President Donald Trump will pardon pro-life activists imprisoned by the Biden Justice Department within days, The Daily Wire has learned.

The plight of the imprisoned pro-lifers is an immediate priority to Trump’s team, and they will likely be pardoned within days, two sources with knowledge of the matter shared with The Daily Wire. The revelation comes a day ahead of the 52nd annual March for Life, a massive peaceful demonstration that takes place in Washington D.C. to bring awareness to the many babies whose lived are ended through abortions. The president is expected to appear at the rally in a pre-recorded video.

Trump issued a sweeping executive order on Monday that granted full pardons for about 1,500 criminal defendants related to the January 6 Capitol Riot, making good on a campaign promises to free those targeted by the Biden administration. His actions prompted many in the pro-life community to hope that he would similarly pardon the pro-life activists targeted by the Biden Justice Department under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

“I hope President Trump will shortly pardon the pro-life prisoners unjustly targeted & jailed by the Biden Administration,” Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley posted to “X” on Wednesday. “They deserve to be free.”

On Thursday, The Daily Signal first reported that Republican Utah Sen, Mike Lee had re-introduced a bill that would repeal the FACE Act once and for all.

“While President [Donald] Trump is stopping these outrageous prosecutions, we should ensure that no future administration has the ability to persecute Americans through unequal application of the law,” Lee told the publication.

(Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas introduced a companion bill in the House on Tuesday, saying Republicans needed to take advantage of their control of Congress and the White House.

Trump has repeatedly criticized the Biden DOJ for targeting pro-lifers on “outrageous charges,” promising on the campaign trail to “rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who’s unjustly victimized by the Biden regime…so we can get them out of the gulags and back to their families where they belong.”

The pardons would bring immediate relief to those currently imprisoned including Lauren Handy (57 months in prison), John Hinshaw (21 months), Jonathan Darnell (34 months), Herb Geraghty (27 months), Jean Marshall (24 months), Joan Bell (27 months), Paulette Harlow (24 months), Bevelyn Williams (41 months), Heather Idoni (24 months), and Calvin Zastrow (6 months).

These defendants were imprisoned over protests at abortion facilities in Tennessee, Washington, D.C., and New York.

The D.C. protest involved a group of pro-life protesters singing songs, praying, locking arms in front of the facility’s staff entrance, and attaching themselves with ropes and chains to block doors inside the infamous Surgi-Clinic in October 2020, a late term abortion facility. In Tennessee, a group of pro-life Christians gathered in a hall outside the Carafem Health Center in Mt. Juliet where they sang hymns, prayed, and urged women not to get abortion in March 2021.

Many of the defendants have already been imprisoned for over a year with many more months yet to serve.

“I would love to be home with my family,” 59-year-old Heather Idoni said in September. “I would love to hold my new grandson.”

Idoni was sentenced to two years in prison over the D.C. protest and was given another eight months to serve concurrently from the Nashville protest.

The pardons would also bring relief to those awaiting sentencing, including 89-year-old Eva Edl. Edl, who survived a World War II-era Yugoslavian concentration camp, was convicted in Detroit and could be sentenced to over a decade in prison over her conviction on FACE and a felony conspiracy charge.

The Thomas More Society, which represented many of the defendants during their federal trials, formally petitioned for the pardons last week, and urged Trump on Wednesday to issue the pardons. Wednesday is the 52nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which the Supreme Court struck down in 2022 largely thanks to votes from Trump appointees.

“Today would be an incredible day for him to do that,” Breen told The Daily Wire on Wednesday morning, discussing possible pardons.