By Bill Fancher
March 7, 2001

WASHINGTON, DC (AgapePress) - One of the biggest weapons abortion advocates use in fighting pro-lifers’ efforts is about to be challenged. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, also known as FACE, is about to be the object of special attention at the Justice Department.

Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition says the law has been misused by the Clinton-Reno Justice Department in the past, and he is anxious to find out how the Bush-Ashcroft Justice Department will use the act.

“Attorney General Reno used FACE to go after women who passed out literature at abortion clinics, she used it go after people who prayed at abortion clinics, people who held signs at abortion clinics -- all had FACE charges brought against them,” Mahoney says.

Mahoney expects that "anti-pro-life" tactic to change. “When the Democrats and the liberals were hammering Mr. Ashcroft, [asking him] ‘Will you enforce FACE?’ we did not want to say anything to disrupt the confirmation process,” he says. “But now that he has been confirmed and is now Attorney General, we want to make some strong challenges to John Ashcroft -- ‘Do not use FACE as a political battering ram to harass and intimidate and go after peaceful pro-life activists.’ ”

Mahoney hopes his discussions with the Justice Department officials will be made public before this week is over.

Porn Persecutions
Another pro-family organization is hoping things will be different with John Ashcroft heading the Justice Department. The anti-pornography group Enough is Enough has been waging a very frustrating war against illegal porn for the past eight years. The group's spokesperson, Donna Rice Hughes, says it was the former Clinton-Reno Justice Department that was the source of the frustration.

"Much of my frustration in the effort to protect children from sexual exploitation due to illegal on-line pornography and pedophile activity has been the lack of enforcement of existing federal laws by the Justice Department," Hughes says.

She notes the huge discrepancy in pornography persecutions over the past 20 years.

"The Reagan and Bush administrations averaged 120 prosecutions a year, and there [were] virtually no prosecutions under Clinton," she says.

Hughes believes the Bush-Ashcroft Justice Department is about to change that situation and begin enforcing the existing laws against illegal pornography.

© 2001 AgapePress all rights reserved.

E-mail this page to a friend

Printer-Friendly Version

Read all of our current headlines