The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday addressing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which conservatives have accused the Biden-Harris Administration of weaponizing against peaceful pro-lifers protesting outside abortion clinics and crisis pregnancy centers. Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ) calls for its repeal, saying in the hearing, "This regime is going to attack anyone that has disparate beliefs from them."
Rep. Biggs questioned pro-life activist Paul Vaughn, who was arrested at gunpoint by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in October 2022 for peacefully protesting outside of the Carafem Abortion Clinic in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, in March 2021. Vaughn's statement described in detail how the agents terrorized him and his family with automatic weapons, forcibly driven to Nashville, and arraigned, a process he called "a litany of injustice and humiliation."
Rep. Biggs asked Vaughn if the Mount Juliet event was violent or if he and fellow pro-life protesters were posing a threat to anyone, which Vaughn denied.
"So, to be clear, you were not a threat to anyone around you, but when the FBI came to serve your indictment, they raided your house and arrested you at gunpoint in front of your family," the Arizona Congressman reiterated before telling Vaughn that the point of such brazen force was to intimidate him and "any other pro-life activist in this country."
Moreover, Biggs also noted the lack of prosecution for vandalism and bombings of crisis pregnancy centers, which he said was part of the "disproportionality that has resulted from the disproportionate impact of the enforcement of the FACE Act, and so you [Vaughn] were at the brunt of that."
To further emphasize his point, Biggs referred to scandals surrounding the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) spying on Catholics and parents opposed to educational curricula perceived as "woke" yet ignoring criminal illegal aliens.
"This regime is going to attack anyone that has disparate beliefs from them. That is why they have gone after Catholics; that is why they spied on parents and school boards. It is a tactic they have employed for the past four years against conservatives of every stripe. Criminal illegal aliens? Let them in [and] give them free housing and other benefits. Conservative pro-life Americans exercising their First Amendment rights? Send the SWAT team to their house. That is clear political intimidation, and that is why the FACE Act has to be repealed," Biggs concluded.
