Attorney General Merrick Garland admitted Wednesday the Justice Department prosecutes more pro-lifers than pro-abortionists because the latter commit their crimes at night.
At a tense Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) confronted Garland over a “disparity” in the DOJ’s abortion-related prosecutions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
“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.
Not only did Garland concede that Lee is correct, but he offered an incredible excuse for the discrepancy.
“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 added that his agency has put its “full resources” behind prosecuting individuals who target pregnancy centers and promised the DOJ will prosecute those responsible.
“But these people who are doing this are clever and are doing it in secret,” he reiterated.
Senator Mike Lee CONFRONTS Attorney General Garland for targeting pro-life Americanswww.youtube.com
The most well-known recent case of a FACE Act prosecution centered on pro-life activist Mark Houck.
Houck was arrested at gunpoint last September and charged with two counts of violating the FACE Act stemming from an October 2021 incident outside a Philadelphia abortion clinic. Houck was accused of pushing an abortion clinic escort. He later argued that he did so to protect his 12-year-old son.
A jury agreed with Houck, finding the 48-year-old father of seven not guilty in January.
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