FBI Arrests Two Pro-Life Advocates for Protesting Abortion, Ignore 160 Attacks on Pro-Lifers

National | Steven Ertelt | Dec 16, 2022 | 5:22PM | Washington, DC

The FBI has arrested two more pro-life people for protesting at abortion clinics. But Joe Biden’s law enforcmenet agency still hasn’t arrested a single person after more than 160 acts of violence against churches, pro-life groups and pregnancy centers.

The latest arrests involve two women from Tennessee who were charged under the federal FACE law in New York on Friday with unlawfully blocking access to abortion businesses in multiple states over the years.

Bevelyn Beatty Williams, 31 and Edmee Chavannes, 41, (pictured in file photo) were both arrested by FBI agents today according to a statement by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who said they “repeatedly attempted — including by using threats, and on at least one occasion, force — to prevent individuals from accessing their legal right to reproductive health services.”

“This office will remain committed to ensuring that healthcare facilities, their staff, and those seeking to obtain reproductive health services can continue to do so without unlawful interference,” Williams said in a statement.

Both are charged with violating the FACE Act, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Williams faces an additional charge of violating the FACE Act through force, which carries up to 10 years.

Earlier this month, attorneys for pro-life advocate Mark Houck have filed a motion in federal court seeking to dismiss the bogus charges filed against him by Joe Biden’s Justice Department for peacefully protesting abortion.

For the nearly three decades since FACE was enacted in 1994, it has rarely been used to prosecute life advocates. Yet in 2022 alone, under the Biden/Garland DOJ, there have been at least 22 peaceful pro-life activists indicted under the act — with the first case involving pro-life advocate Mark Houck, whose family was raided after an altercation at a Philadelphia abortion business last year where he accidentally pushed down a man who was verbally accosting his 12-year-old son.

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Attorneys with the Thomas More Society, a pro-life legal group representing Houck, have moved to dismiss federal charges against the pro-life family man whose dawn arrest by armed FBI in front of his wife and young children shocked America.

The motion filed this week in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania alleges that the prosecution of Houck violates the U.S. Constitution due to the Biden administration’s viewpoint discrimination and selective prosecution against him and other pro-life Americans. Additionally, Houck and his legal team are accusing the government of violations of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and Free Exercise Clause and arguing that the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (“FACE”) Act is unconstitutional, especially as applied to Houck.

Houck was arraigned in federal court on September 27, 2022, on two counts of violating the federal FACE Act outside a Pennsylvania abortion facility in October 2021.

Thomas More Society Vice President and Senior Counsel Peter Breen spoke to the charges against Houck in an email to LifeNews.

“The Biden administration has filed two defective and discriminatory charges against Mark Houck under the FACE Act, and both should be dismissed,” stated Breen. “Both counts allege that Mark Houck interfered with a volunteer so-called ‘escort,’ when in reality, it was that escort who initiated the incidents and wronged Mark Houck—first obstructing Mark’s sidewalk counseling and then harassing his 12-year-old son.”

Houck’s Motion to Dismiss goes on to detail viewpoint discrimination and selective prosecution, noting that the aggression and obstruction committed by Houck’s accuser have still not been acted upon by law enforcement. Additionally, the Biden administration has “altogether failed to prosecute more than 150 acts of physical damage and destruction inflicted on pregnancy resource centers and churches across the country—in express violation of FACE—since the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in May 2022. Yet it has filed FACE charges against no fewer than 26 pro-life individuals in 2022—an exponentially higher number than any time in recent history, while prominent and nationwide proabortion FACE violations remain unpunished.”

Referencing additional facts from the filing, Breen explained that “The Department of Justice has demonstrated clear and illegal hostility to the pro-life viewpoint in its statements and enforcement decisions, running roughshod over fundamental religious freedoms and free speech rights, and bringing an illegal selective prosecution here.”

Breen also pointed out that there is no general police power delegated to the federal government under the United States Constitution.

“Yet,” recounted Breen, “a general police power is what the government seeks to exercise here, indicting Mr. Houck for actions that lack any federal jurisdictional nexus and that are, at most, a matter of state law. Application of FACE to Mr. Houck exceeds the bounds of any powers granted to the federal government by the Constitution and offends both principles of federalism and the Tenth Amendment.”

“This case is being brought solely to intimidate people of faith and pro-life Americans,” stated Breen. “Mark Houck is innocent of these lawless charges, and we intend to prove that in court.”

While the FBI has focused on arresting pro-life advocates, it has done nothing to arrest any of the violence pro-abortion extremists who have engaged in over 160 acts of violence against pro-life Americans.

According to Catholic Vote, at least 86 Catholic churches and 77 pro-life organizations have been victims of firebombs, vandalism and other attacks since May when someone leaked a draft ruling of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health case.

In November, FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed most of the abortion-related attacks this year have targeted pro-lifers. “Since the Dobbs decision, probably in the neighborhood of 70 percent of our abortion-related violence cases or threats cases are cases of violence or threats against … pro-life organizations,” he told a U.S. Senate committee.

Many churches and pro-life organizations are increasing security and Republican lawmakers are demanding action from the Biden administration to crack down on the growing pro-abortion domestic terrorism. But, while the Biden administration has been aggressively working to expand the killing of unborn babies in abortions, it has done little to stop the violence and hostilities directed at pro-life advocates and churches.

LifeNews has been keeping track of reports of arson, vandalism, pro-abortion violence and other incidents targeting pro-life advocates since May. They include:

Virginia – Pro-Life Advocate Attacked, Injured at George Mason University (TFP Student Action)

Pennsylvania – Pro-Life Advocate Attacked while Holding Sign Saying “Smile! You Survived Abortion!” at Gettysburg College

California – Pro-Life Student Display Vandalized at University of California San Diego (Students for Life)

Nebraska – Church, Pro-Life Students Receive Violent Threats from Pro-Abortion Activists (Omaha World Herald); Governor Condemns as Domestic Terrorism

Washington, D.C. – Radical Abortion Activists Disrupt Pregnancy Center Banquet Just Months after It was Vandalized

Indiana – Another Pro-Life Billboard Vandalized with Red Paint in Greenfield, Indiana (Prolife Across America)

South Carolina – Clemson University Pro-Life Student Group Gets Violent Threats for Hosting Students for Life Chief (The College Fix)

Pennsylvania – Carnegie Mellon University Republican Club Competition Display Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Campus Reform)

Alaska – St. Andrew Catholic Church in Eagle River Vandalized Twice Since Supreme Court Abortion Leak (Alaska Watchman)

New York – Ulster County Sheriff’s Office Investigates Vandalism of Pro-Life Billboard in Esopus, Third Time This Year (Daily Freeman)

North Carolina – Campbell University Pro-Life Student Leader Receives Violent Threats, Display Vandalized (Campus Reform)

Michigan – Prayer rally to defeat Michigan abortion amendment is victim of ‘pro-choice cyber attack’ (Catholic News Agency)