U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is among a group of House Republicans urging colleagues to defund the Department of Justice's efforts for prosecuting possible violations of the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which makes the physical obstruction of abortion clinics a federal offense, as well as threats of force and violence against clinic workers and clinic property.
Roy and 11 other House Republicans wrote a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger, R-Texas, saying the Biden administration could not be trusted to "faithfully implement and enforce the FACE Act," The Washington Examiner reported.
"The Biden Administration has proven time and time again that it cannot be trusted to faithfully implement and enforce the FACE Act, as written by Congress," the letter said. "Until such a time, Congress ought to withhold the use of funds for enforcing this law and seriously consider repealing the statute in its entirety."
The FACE Act was passed with bipartisan support in Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton following the escalation of violence at abortion clinics, culminating in the murder of an abortion doctor in Pensacola, Florida, in March 1993.
The lawmakers cited the case of Mark Houck, a Pennsylvania father of seven and anti-abortion activist who was prosecuted by the DOJ in September for pushing Bruce Love, an abortion clinic volunteer who was verbally harassing his son. The indictment claimed Houck attacked Love to interfere with the clinic's work, which Houck denied. Houck was found not guilty in federal court in January and said he was planning to sue the FBI and other authorities following his ordeal.
"Last September, the American people watched in horror as dozens of heavily armed Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and more than a dozen vehicles conducted an early morning raid, with guns drawn, on the home of Mark Houck, his wife, and seven children," the lawmakers wrote. "Since then, Mark Houck has been found innocent of all charges, but Attorney General Merrick Garland has refused to admit that the overwhelming use of force against an innocent American citizen was a mistake."
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