Under questioning from a GOP senator on Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland made a remarkably frank admission regarding the Justice Department’s prosecutions of pro-life Americans.
Garland acknowledged that the Justice Department prosecutes more pro-life activists than pro-abortion activists due to the fact that the latter typically carry out their actions during nighttime hours, The Blaze reported.
During a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) challenged Garland regarding a “discrepancy” in the DOJ’s enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which pertains to abortion-related cases.
“In 2022 and for the first couple of months of 2023, DOJ’s announced charges against 34 individuals for blocking access to or vandalizing abortion clinics, and there have been over 81 recorded attacks on pregnancy centers, 130 attacks on Catholic churches since the leak of the Dobbs decision, and only two individuals have been charged,” Lee explained.
“So, how do you explain this disparity by reference to anything other than politicization of what’s happening there?” he pressed.
Garland not only conceded that Lee was right, but his excuse was eye-opening and mind-boggling.
“I will say you are quite right. There are many more prosecutions with respect to the blocking of the abortion centers,” Garland began.
“But that is generally because those actions are taken with photography at the time, during the daylight, and seeing the person who did it is quite easy,” the attorney general explained. “Those who are attacking the pregnancy resource centers, which is a horrid thing to do, are doing this at night in the dark.”
Garland went on to affirm that his agency has devoted its complete resources to pursuing individuals who single out pregnancy centers and reassured that the DOJ would hold those responsible accountable through prosecution. “But these people who are doing this are clever and are doing it in secret,” he repeated.
The most well-known recent case of a FACE Act prosecution centered on pro-life activist Mark Houck, The Blaze noted.
Last September, Houck was detained at gunpoint and charged with two counts of violating the FACE Act following an incident outside a Philadelphia abortion clinic in October 2021. Houck was charged with pushing an abortion clinic escort. He subsequently contended that he had done so to safeguard his 12-year-old son.
The Blaze noted: “A jury agreed with Houck, finding the 48-year-old father of seven not guilty in January.”
