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During the COVID lockdowns in 2020, I found myself spending more time with my son (then one-and-a-half) than I had before. One day, as I collected my notes for a reading group on Anna Karenina, I suddenly noticed two things. First, the most significant thing in my life—the thing that gave the most but also required the most from me—was my relationship with my son. Second, I had never been invited to reflect on that relationship in a theological or philosophical way. I had written papers on friendship and read books on sexual ethics. But at no point in twelve years of higher education had I been asked to give serious thought to fatherhood and what it would mean for me, and now it had become the dominant force of my world. In honor of Father’s Day, I want to offer some reflections on what I’ve come to learn that fatherhood is about. First, fatherhood is about generation. Second, fatherhood is about priesthood.  

In the Summa Theologiae I q. 33, in his treatise on the Trinity, Thomas Aquinas considers the Father and the particular properties of the Father. In a. 2, Thomas writes:  

The proper name of any person signifies that whereby the person is distinguished from all other persons. For as body and soul belong to the nature of man, so to the concept of this particular man belong this particular soul and this particular body; and by these is this particular man distinguished from all other men. Now it is paternity which distinguishes the person of the Father from all other persons. Hence this name ‘Father,’ whereby paternity is signified, is the proper name of the person of the Father. 

And the heart of that paternity is the Father being a principle for or generating the other persons of the Trinity, the Son and the Spirit.  

Aquinas goes on to argue that because the Father and Son are ontologically one, they manifest perfectly the idea of paternity and filiation. Here he is echoing Ephesians 3:14–15: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.” In the Latin Vulgate, the word here translated as family is paternitas, fatherhood, and in Greek it is patria, which can mean both family and fatherhood. Thus, our fatherhood has a share in God’s fatherhood, and God’s fatherhood is grounded in giving the other persons of the Trinity their being.  

We see God’s fatherhood in Genesis 1 as well, where it is exercised in creation. The great Dominican preacher Meister Eckhart writes of creation as an ebullitio, a boiling over or a bubbling over of the love of God. This eternal generation of the Son and Spirit and the love and relationship they share “boils over” into the generation of other beings that can participate in but be distinct from the divine being. We human beings are made in the image and likeness of God, and God’s first words to Adam and Eve are “be fruitful and multiply.” Part of our being in the image and likeness of God is our capacity for generation, and for generation out of a union of love. To put it more succinctly, God made men to beget new life and thereby share in his fatherhood. 

I want to underscore this because it is radically different from our dominant culture. I vividly remember a poster for Planned Parenthood that I saw in college on an acquaintance’s dorm room wall. Rows of condoms in all the colors of the rainbow cascaded down, and underneath it said, “Life is sexually transmitted.” The implication was clear: human life was like a STD, at least potentially. In stark contrast to that, Scripture and Christian faith teach us that our capacity for generating new life is good and a gift—yes, a gift to handle with care and prudence, but part of our being like God. It is constitutive of our humanity, not a mistake or a disease or something we can simply thwart, unplug, or ignore without consequence. 

Hence in his apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio, St. John Paul II writes: 

According to the plan of God, marriage is the foundation of the wider community of the family, since the very institution of marriage and conjugal love are ordained to the procreation and education of children, in whom they find their crowning. In its most profound reality, love is essentially a gift; and conjugal love, while leading the spouses to the reciprocal “knowledge” which makes them “one flesh,” does not end with the couple, because it makes them capable of the greatest possible gift, the gift by which they become cooperators with God for giving life to a new human person. Thus the couple, while giving themselves to one another, give not just themselves but also the reality of children, who are a living reflection of their love, a permanent sign of conjugal unity and a living and inseparable synthesis of their being a father and a mother. When they become parents, spouses receive from God the gift of a new responsibility. Their parental love is called to become for the children the visible sign of the very love of God, “from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.” 

Here John Paul II underscores another important aspect of fatherhood: since your fatherhood takes its name from God’s fatherhood, the love of parents—especially the love of a father—becomes a visible sign of the love of God. In other words, a good father shows his wife and his children what God’s love looks like. As John Paul II puts it later, a father reveals and relives on earth “the very fatherhood of God.” 

This brings me to the second characteristic of fatherhood: fatherhood is about priesthood. I mean this in the sense that we are all called and empowered to participate in the priesthood of Christ by our baptism, and those of us in the lay life have been called to sanctify the world through our acts of charity and preaching of the gospel. In the Catholic Church, emphasizing this work of the laity is one of the great contributions of Vatican II. But already in the Summa contra Gentiles, we find Thomas Aquinas reflecting on how mothers and fathers are called to participate in the priestly work of Christ. 

At the beginning of his discussion of the sacraments in Book IV, he writes:  

For some propagate and conserve the spiritual life in an only spiritual ministry, and this belongs to the sacrament of orders; and some in a ministry that is simultaneously bodily and spiritual, which takes place in the sacrament of matrimony where a man and woman come together to beget offspring and to rear them in divine worship.  

Here Thomas clearly distinguishes between the work of a spiritual father and the work of a natural father, while clearly identifying both as priestly work: work that sanctifies the world, offers it to God, and brings souls to him. Again, fatherhood is not just about generating children but forming them so that their lives are directed to the worship of God.  

In this regard, John Paul II underlines the importance of family prayer:  

The concrete example and living witness of parents is fundamental and irreplaceable in educating their children to pray. Only by praying together with their children can a father and mother—exercising their royal priesthood—penetrate the innermost depths of their children’s hearts and leave an impression that the future events in their lives will not be able to efface.  

This sounds beautiful in practice and, as most parents know, can be messy in everyday life. Our weekly family rosary involves clutching for moments of recollection between endless questions about what bead we are on and constant exhortations to stop swinging or stretching the rosary, to sit down, to behave like we’re praying, etc. For reasons unknown to both my wife and me, I seem constitutionally incapable of knowing what mystery comes next. When we discussed this once with our pastor, he reminded us of that valuable maxim of both the athletic life and the spiritual life: a messy win is still a win. Prayer—like so many other aspects of family life—requires taking those messy wins whenever we can, in the hope that a foundation of real love and piety is nonetheless being laid down.  

As you know, one of the defining characteristics of a priest in most religions is that he offers sacrifices. And the priesthood of a father entails offering sacrifices constantly, for the sake of your wife and the sake of your children. The journalist Jonathan Last writes that 

 the primary effect of children is to take things from you. It begins with sleep, time, and dignity and then expands over the years to include serenity, sanity, and a great deal of money. I am making an observation here, not complaining. It’s just what they do. In that way, children are like the aging process itself: an exercise in letting go of the ancillary parts of your existence until you are stripped bare, and what remains is your elemental center. Your soul. I’m told Jews see something of this in the Suffering Servant songs in Isaiah. Christians know it as the Way of the Cross. A consultant from McKinsey would call it addition by subtraction. 

The vocation of fatherhood, when lived well, is an ascetic one in which you learn to put the needs of others before your own, to choose for their good instead of your pleasure or benefit. Reflecting on this same theme, John Paul II writes: “Spouses are therefore the permanent reminder to the Church of what happened on the Cross; they are for one another and for the children witnesses to the salvation in which the sacrament makes them sharers.” 

Let me close with one more reflection. There are two troubling voices that young men can find very attractive at present. One says that family is an unjust burden, a commitment and responsibility that keeps you from having fun, living your best life, and having endless brunches. This side can also see family as an unjust structure ruled over by dominating men, inherently connected to patriarchy. Another voice, perhaps in reaction to this, says that real masculinity is a matter of exchanging weakness and pleasure-seeking for strength and domination—that real manhood involves a kind of hypermasculinity or embracing an uncompromising and rigorous view of gender roles as an antidote to modernity. Both of these are assertions of pride and not humility. They are vicious extremes and actually not life-giving.  

Catholic men are called to follow the Lord Jesus, to live not lives of domination that demand submission from others but lives where their strength and talent are offered in self-sacrifice for those God has given them to serve. The virtuous mean between those extremes is the Way of the Cross, the path by which you find your life in losing it, the way by which you enter into joys you didn’t know existed on the far side of burdens you didn’t know you could bear. That is the path of holiness to which Sts. Thomas and John Paul II call us, the path by which Christ calls us to share in his fatherhood and in his priesthood for the salvation of our own souls and those of our wives and children.  

An earlier version of this article was given as a retreat talk for the Thomistic Institute at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC. 

Image licensed via Adobe Stock.

RPI Director Daniel McAdams joins RPI Board Member Judge Andrew Napolitano’s “Judging Freedom” program to discuss how Congress skirts its Constitutional obligations while exceeding its Constitutional authority. They also discuss the riots in Los Angeles and the use of the National Guard and Marines. Will Trump attack Iran? The signs are worrying:

Dr. Theresa Burke was a graduate student in psychology in the 1980s when, leading a support group for women with eating disorders, she made a discovery that would change her life – and the lives of millions of others:

Most of the women in the group had an abortion in their past.

This discovery prompted Dr. Burke to look for resources to help these women deal with the trauma left behind by their abortions but she found there were no resources for post-abortion healing.

Rachel’s Vineyard was born. Now the world’s largest ministry for healing after abortion, Dr. Burke and her husband, Kevin Burke, a licensed social worker, developed the weekend retreat program that has spread to 49 states and 70 countries, is offered by numerous Catholic dioceses and has a retreat manual translated into dozens of languages.

In 2019 the Peruvian Rachel’s Vineyard team met with then-Monsignor Robert Prevost to ask for his blessing and support for their new Rachel’s Vineyard (El Viñedo de Raquel) site in the Diocese of Lima. Now we know him as Pope Leo XIV.

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Rachel’s Vineyard became a ministry of Priests for Life in 2004, and both of the Burkes are full-time members of our Pastoral Team.

In 2006, Dr. Burke discovered something startling about those who attend and lead Rachel’s Vineyard retreats: A majority of them have experienced sexual abuse. Grief to Grace: Healing the Wounds of Abuse was born.

Grief to Grace offers a five-day retreat program to women and men who have suffered any kind of abuse – physical, emotional, sexual or even neglect.

“It’s a beautiful journey that Jesus travels alongside us as a fellow abuse survivor,” Dr. Burke said. “We know from the Passion that Jesus was terribly abused. We know he understands what abuse survivors have gone through probably better than anyone.”

Through rituals that will be particularly meaningful to Christians, licensed counselors and compassionate volunteers help participants recall the circumstances of their abuse and help them recognize the coping mechanisms that have allowed them to survive but kept them from living fully.

“Many abuse victims have been conditioned to blame themselves,” she said. “Our goal is ending the isolation and the fear that something is inherently wrong with you that you can’t move on. We help them rearrange their relationship with their trauma.”

The program has spread solely through word of mouth and is now in 25 countries and several states. Grief to Grace has attracted many Rachel’s Vineyard leaders who have not had abortions themselves but have other trauma, or abuse, in their lives. Dr. Burke said the program frequently has Roman Catholic priests and nuns as participants.

“The language for their beliefs we have not seen in other therapy,” Dr. Burkes said. “When we can unite our suffering to Christ, we are on our way because he does the heavy lifting.”

Some attendees will use the program as a springboard to deeper healing but some others, she said, “feel so free that they don’t want to waste another minute of their lives,” being controlled by the past abuse.

While working on Grief to Grace, several personal experiences converged that prompted Dr. Burke to develop another retreat. Duty to Heal helps military veterans and law enforcement professionals reconcile – and grieve – the moral injuries suffered in war and violence.

For information on any of the healing programs – Rachel’s Vineyard, Grief to Grace and Duty to Heal, go to LivingScriptureInstitute.org

“You really can heal,” Dr. Burke said. “We have seen the miracles.”

LifeNews.com Note:  Frank Pavone is the national director for Priests for Life.

The post Abortion and Abuse Keep People From Relationships With God, But Help is Here appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Four months after her resignation as chairman of the United States Libertarian Party, Angela McArdle has been singled out for ostracism by the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) that oversees the party.

“Whereas the Special Investigatory Committee finds that former Chair Angela McArdle violated her fiduciary duty to the Libertarian Party by concealing conflicts of interest and misusing donor funds, be it hereby resolved that the Libertarian National Committee deems Angela McArdle unfit to serve on the Libertarian National Committee, as an affiliate leader or as a candidate representing the Libertarian Party,” read a resolution the LNC approved at its Monday meeting.

The report referenced in the LNC resolution was made public by the LNC at the meeting as well. The report can be read here.

For a short description of some of relevant details from the report, check out here a Tuesday article by Jordan Willow Evans at Independent Political Report.

Earlier this week, 38-year-old Justin Anthony Banta was arrested in Texas on charges of capital murder after allegedly dosing his pregnant girlfriend with “Plan C” (abortion pills), likely procured online.

“Operation Rescue has raised the alarm again and again about the abortion cartel’s ‘Virtual Back-Alley,’” says Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “Cash for pills and no questions asked.”

Banta is an IT employee with the Department of Justice. In September, his girlfriend told him she was pregnant. According to a press release from Parker County Sheriff’s Office, Banta “proposed to cover the cost of an abortion and suggested they order the ‘Plan C’ online.”

Banta’s then-girlfriend refused the offer, telling him she wanted to keep the baby.

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The following month, on October 17, Banta’s girlfriend went in for a six-week ultrasound. The girlfriend reported her baby had a strong heartbeat and was said to be healthy. She met Banta at a coffee shop sometime after the appointment.

The very next day, she became extremely tired and experienced heavy bleeding. She sought emergency care but reportedly lost her baby on October 19, just two days after coffee with Banta. Later, she told police she believed Banta dosed her drink with abortion pills.

Detectives conducted an interview with Banta and collected his phone as evidence. Afterwards, investigators believe Banta accessed his phone remotely and performed a “reset,” deleting evidence related to the possible purchase or internet search of “Plan C.”

Banta was arrested on Friday, June 6, for capital murder and tampering with physical evidence.

“This is the perilous world the FDA created when it removed nearly all safety guards from the abortion drug, mifepristone,” says Newman. “Anyone can order these pills – an angry boyfriend like Banta, a sexual abuser trying to hide his crimes, even a vengeful, jealous co-worker. As it stands right now, there are no protections in place to prevent these abortion pills being obtained for nefarious purposes. The FDA has literally opened the door for forced abortions.”

Thanks to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the FDA has recently been tasked with conducting a complete review of mifepristone, focusing on the safety of the drug. No timeline has been announced for that review.

“This case raises another pressing question,” adds Newman. “This man will be tried for the intentional, seemingly pre-meditated murder of his own child in the womb, facing capital punishment for a capital crime. How is this intentional murder by a father any different than when a mother orders pills, knowing those pills will kill her child, and then ingests them of her own free will? The rise of the Virtual Back-Alley creates a devastating scenario where the mother becomes the abortionist in the privacy of her own home. She can plan the death of her child – the time, the means, and the location – from her phone. How long can we shield one parent for such a crime, while prosecuting the other parent?”

LifeNews Note: This article was originally published by Operation Rescue, a leading pro-life, Christian activist organization dedicated to exposing abortion abuses, demanding enforcement, saving innocent lives, and building an abortion-free America. The author, Sarah Neely, is Chief Operating Officer for Operation Rescue.

The post Man Faces Murder Charge for Killing His Own Unborn Child appeared first on LifeNews.com.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a reconciliation bill hailed as a significant pro-life victory, which will defund major abortion companies like Planned Parenthood and redirect support to women, children, and families.

The legislation is now waiting action in the U.S. Senate, where a critical vote is expected soon, according to Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of March for Life Action.

The bill, which also aims to save taxpayer dollars, includes measures that Lichter described as a “major pro-life victory” that would “defund Big Abortion and support women, children, and families across our nation.”

She credited grassroots efforts for the House passage, stating, “Thank you to all of you who contacted your U.S. Representatives and helped make this happen!”

But action is needed now to urge senators get the bill over the finish line – first with a vote in the full Senate without pulling the language to defund Planned Parenthood.

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Lichter urged immediate action to ensure Senate support, emphasizing the bill’s potential to advance pro-life goals.

“Now, the fate of the bill and its pro-life provisions rest in the U.S. Senate’s hands, and a vote is just around the corner,” she said. “If it passes, you, me, we — the pro-life movement — will be one step closer to defunding Big Abortion — and saving countless lives.”

Highlighting the stakes, Lichter pointed to Planned Parenthood, which she called “one of the biggest players in Big Abortion.” She noted the organization is “actively rallying their pro-abortion activists to counteract your voice” and noted that Planned Parenthood “is singlehandedly responsible for ending the lives of over 400,000 children in 2022-2023 alone, all while receiving $2 million a day in taxpayer funding.”

Lichter called on supporters to contact their senators to back the bill, which she said carries “powerful pro-life and pro-family implications.” She stressed the need to counter pro-abortion advocacy, adding, “Our women and girls deserve better than abortion.”

The Senate vote’s outcome remains uncertain, with pro-life and pro-abortion groups intensifying efforts to sway lawmakers. The bill’s passage could reshape federal funding priorities, potentially redirecting resources away from abortion providers toward family-focused programs.

The post Action Needed to Urge Senate to Defund Planned Parenthood appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Will New York become the 12th state to legalize assisted suicide? That decision officially rests in the hands of Governor Kathy Hochul (D).

On Monday, the New York State Senate passed the Medical Aid in Dying Act (MAID). The vote was 35-27, “with six Democrats — Senators April Baskin, Siela Bynoe, Cordelle Cleare, Monica Martinez, Roxanne Persaud, and Sam Sutton — voting against it,” the New York Post reported. If signed, MAID allows mentally competent adults with six months or less to live to request and self-administer medication for physician-assisted suicide.

State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D) hailed the legislation as “one of the great social reforms of our state.” The senator, who also co-sponsored the bill in the upper chamber, went on to claim, “This is about personal autonomy, this is about liberty, this is about exercising one’s own freedom to control one’s body.” Similarly, state Senator Rachel May (D) said MAID “isn’t about controlling the disease or controlling the pain, it’s about having control at the end of your life.”

But critics of the bill are raising ethical and practical concerns, arguing that the legislation, unlike similar laws in the 10 other states and D.C. where assisted suicide is legal, lacks critical safeguards. “Under the bill,” the Post added, “recipients would need approval from two doctors and a sign-off from two independent witnesses, after which they would receive a prescription for drugs they could use to take their life at a time of their choosing. Doctors also do not have to conduct a mental health screening for each patient, but may refer a patient for one under the legislation.”

ACTION ALERT: Tell Governor Kathy Hochul to veto the dangerous assisted suicide bill.

Questions linger as to whether there is any statutory waiting period that would serve in “establishing [a] clear chain of custody for the pills, mandating the doctor and recipient meet in-person, and requiring a disclosure that someone indeed used the drugs to take their own life.” This, Hoylman-Sigal claimed, is “rational.” However, opposition to the bill is fierce, with critics framing it as a dangerous step toward normalizing suicide.

National Review branded New York as the “state of death.” The New York Post called the legislation “monstrous.” Others described Monday’s decision as “a dark day.”

“For the first time in its history,” said Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, “New York is on the verge of authorizing doctors to help their patients commit suicide. Make no mistake — this is only the beginning, and the only person standing between New York and the assisted suicide nightmare unfolding in Canada is Governor Hochul.” In a statement, The New York Alliance Against Assisted Suicide added, “The governor still has the opportunity to uphold New York’s commitment to suicide prevention, protect vulnerable communities, and affirm that every life — regardless of disability, age, or diagnosis — is worthy of care, dignity, and protection.”

Chairman Gerard Kassar of the Conservative Party of New York also urged Hochul to veto the “dangerous legislation.” As he put it, “This legislation is not about dignity — it’s about surrender.” Rather than “investing in pain management, mental health services, and real palliative care, the Democrat-led Senate wants to offer death as a substitute for support. It’s appalling.” He added, “The so-called ‘right to die’ becomes a duty to die when insurance companies realize it’s cheaper than treatment, or when an overwhelmed caregiver sees no alternative. There is nothing progressive about normalizing suicide. This isn’t a left vs. right issue — it’s right vs. wrong. Governor Hochul has a chance to stop this madness and draw a line for decency and life.”

Hochul, however, has yet to reveal her stance. Her office has only stated that she “will review the legislation,” leaving both supporters and opponents anxiously awaiting her decision. As lobbyists from both sides press their cases, the debate underscores profound moral and ethical questions about life, dignity, and compassion. In a comment to The Washington Stand, Family Research Council’s Mary Szoch put it bluntly: “Physician-assisted suicide is a false form of compassion — one that has no place in America.”

Szoch, director of FRC’s Center for Human Dignity, went on to explain, “Each of us must recognize that true compassion means a willingness to suffer with someone else — to be there every single step of the journey of life. Proponents of assisted suicide may believe that a person’s dignity can be lost if their capacity to live autonomously decreases. However, as Christians, we are called to witness to the truth that a person’s dignity is immutable because that dignity comes from being a son or daughter of Christ.”

LifeNews Note: Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand, where this originally appeared.

The post Kathy Hochul Should Stop New York From Becoming 11th State to Legalize Assisted Suicide appeared first on LifeNews.com.

House Republicans have advanced a bill that would roll back the federal government’s ability to fine or imprison peaceful pro-life advocates, while Democrats slurred its Republican sponsors as “terrorists” who want to “green light violence” and see women raped, abused, and killed.

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee approved the FACE Act Repeal Act (H.R. 589) by a 13-10 vote. The legislation, introduced multiple times by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), would delete the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act — a Clinton-era law that prohibits blocking the entrances to any abortion facility, reproductive health office, or house of worship — from the books. The act, which would codify President Donald Trump’s executive orders on “Ending The Weaponization Of The Federal Government,” “Enforcing the Hyde Amendment,” and “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias,” now moves forward for a vote before the full House.

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“What the Biden-Harris administration did to peaceful pro-lifers like Mark Houck, Paul Vaughn, and Lauren Handy, among many others, can never be erased. The FACE Act is unconstitutional, and today’s committee vote on its repeal is an important step to restoring justice for the pro-life advocates who were targets of weaponized prosecutions and for restoring the rule of law for all,” Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at the pro-life Thomas More Society, told The Washington Stand. The Thomas More Society legally represented many of those charged and successfully petitioned President Trump to pardon 21 sidewalk counselors.

Pro-life advocates have long condemned the one-sided enforcement of the FACE Act, which Roy said Democratic administrations had “politicized and weaponized against people across this country, including people of faith” nationwide. “The Biden Department of Justice brought almost a quarter of all the FACE Act prosecutions, 24% of all charges targeting pro-life activists, in less than four years” while “turning a blind eye to the anti-life activists engaged in destroying, vandalizing, and even firebombing pregnancy resource centers and churches at the same time.”

Only 8% of Biden-Harris FACE Act cases were against those who vandalized pro-life pregnancy centers, he said. Studies show pro-life pregnancy resource centers are 22 times more likely to be attacked than abortion facilities. The Biden-Harris administration also declined to prosecute a single one of the 436 church attacks that took place in 2024 under the FACE Act.

Legal experts highlighted that, for the first time, the Biden-Harris administration charged peaceful pro-life advocates with violating both the FACE Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act’s ‘Conspiracy Against Rights’ felony provisions (18 U.S.C. § 241). Together, the charges could bring more than a decade in prison. “The previous administration weaponized the FACE Act to prosecute nonviolent pro-life Americans with the harshest sentences,” said Roy.

“Since 1994, 97% — I repeat that — 97% of FACE Act prosecutions have been against pro-lifers,” added Rep. Bob Odner (R-Mo.). The Biden-Harris administration particularly engaged in thuggish, intimidating behavior against peaceful pro-life activists,” including Mark Houck and Paul Vaughn. Odner described the disproportionate prosecution of Christian conservatives as the “intended effect of the FACE Act.”

For three decades, “the FACE Act was always intended as a cudgel against pro-life speech, with 97% of prosecutions brought by the DOJ over its 30-year history having targeted pro-lifers,” Breen told TWS. “Our clients — loving moms and dads, grandparents, priests, and nonviolent people of faith — have faced harsher charges and sentences than convicted drug dealers and fraudsters.”

“To ensure this never happens again and to protect the constitutional rights of peaceful pro-lifers to advocate against the injustice of abortion, Congress must repeal the FACE Act,” said Breen.

Some ‘Resistance’ from the Trump Administration against Repealing the FACE Act

Yet Roy revealed he had been “getting some resistance even from our own [Trump] administration” over entirely repealing the FACE Act, saying DOJ officials “will use it to defend churches more.” Likewise, Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) threatened, “If this bill comes out of committee,” she will tell “the rabbis and members of the Jewish community in my district” that “the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee no longer care about enforcing federal law when it comes to our synagogues.”

Still, Roy said he remained concerned about the general plague of “overcriminalization” and “the overempowerment of the Department of Justice … regardless of who’s in the White House.”

One Republican opposed the bill: Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) called himself pro-life and found the Biden-Harris administration guilty of “the abuse of this act.” But McClintock claimed the FACE Act “protects every person, pro-life or pro-abortion, in their right to assemble and express their views openly.”

“When this bill was drafted, great pains were taken to keep its enforcement balanced,” claimed McClintock, who said he wanted to see the act amended rather than repealed, because “the law itself is viewpoint-neutral.” He stated the law is “important to protect the pro-life [minority] in California.”

“I’m glad to hear you oppose this bill,” Nadler, one of the authors of the 1994 bill, told McClintock.

Roy remained steadfast. “Freedom is just an illusion when the government buries its own citizens under ridiculous and never-ending criminal laws,” Rep. Roy told TWS. “Almost any American could be indicted [and] charged from some crime, often without even knowing they had violated a law or regulation.” The Texas conservative’s comments came as his committee marked up another of his bills, the Count the Crimes to Cut Act of 2025, intended simply to come up with a formal list of all crimes in the federal register.

Democrats: Pro-life Advocates Are ‘Terrorists’ Who ‘Want’ Women to Be Raped, Abused, or Killed

Rather than debate the act’s history of lopsided legal enforcement, most of the committee’s Democrats maligned the motives of Roy and others who sought the punitive bill’s repeal.

“The only people in America who are asking for this legislation to be repealed are terrorists,” averred Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who said opponents had “a sick obsession” with “telling women what to do with their bodies.” Said Trump does not support nonviolent protests, because he just sent Marines to oppose “protesters” in Los Angeles.

“This is a green light for more violence against women,” said Swalwell.

“We have people in this body who are essentially saying it is okay to harm, to hurt, maybe even to kill someone,” insisted Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.). After discussing a woman who was raped and assaulted by her male partner, she said, “If you want to repeal this, you’re saying it’s okay for that to happen to her.” She then claimed those who wanted to repeal the weaponized FACE Act had violated their faith, saying, “You cannot be a Christian and condone that kind of activity.”

“We’re considering this legislation for one reason: to green light violence against abortion care in this country. … The reason the FACE Act exists is because anti-abortion extremists refuse to renounce violence,” asserted Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.).

“There is only one reason” anyone would want to repeal the FACE Act, agreed Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.): “They want to see violent obstruction.”

Several Democrats — including the committee’s ranking member, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) — dismissed concerns that a judge had jailed a 75-year-old grandmother who prayed peacefully at an abortion facility by citing a “fact-check” from Associated Press reporter Melissa Goldin, claiming the elderly Paulette Harlow had been arrested for a FACE Act violation, not prayer. Harlow allegedly blockaded the Washington Surgi-Center, where pro-life advocates discovered the bodies of five viable babies who had possibly been subjected to illegal late-term abortions by Cesare Santangelo. Media and social media “fact-checkers” have been documented misinforming the public about the origins of COVID-19, the efficacy of masks, and natural immunity; the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop; and abortion’s safety. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee who has handed down numerous pro-abortion opinions, sentenced Harlow to two years and dismissed concerns over Harlow’s age and ill-health, telling her husband that the 75-year-old should “make an effort to remain alive,” since pro-life beliefs are “a tenet of her religion.”

“No, you are not being arrested for praying. You are being arrested for making threats,” insisted Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.). “There is no evidence that there is selective enforcement here, that the FACE Act has been weaponized against abortion protesters.”

Nadler similarly decried “the slanders against the FACE Act.”

President Trump has taken executive action to protect pro-life advocates and end the weaponization of government rampant under his predecessor. In his first week in office, President Donald Trump fulfilled a campaign promise made at the 2023 Pray Vote Stand Summit and pardoned 23 pro-life advocates convicted of violating the FACE Act during the Biden-Harris administration. The president said they “should not have been prosecuted” and called their imprisonment “ridiculous.”

“This is a great honor to sign this,” said President Trump.

But pro-life advocates say executive actions turn on a dime with the change of administrations. For peaceful sidewalk counselors to rest easy, lawmakers must expunge the underlying law from the nation’s legal code.

“We are grateful for the House Judiciary Committee’s leadership on this crucial matter, applaud the passage of Rep. Chip Roy’s FACE Act Repeal bill, and urge Congress to send it to the president’s desk,” Breen told TWS.

LifeNews Note: Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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