The FACE Act was enacted to protect reproductive health clinics − here’s why its history matters today

Anti-abortion activists protest in Orlando, Fla., on April 13, 2024. Photo by Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

Soon after taking office for a second time, President Donald Trump pardoned anti-abortion activists who had blockaded and restricted access to the entrance of a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C., in October 2020.

These protesters were convicted of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Protesting outside clinics is a way for conservative anti-abortion activists to directly influence access to reproductive health care.

The FACE Act prohibits the use of force or threat toward people trying to obtain or provide reproductive health services. It was created to limit the anti-abortion movement’s tactics outside clinics, requiring that protesters cannot physically stop patients from walking into clinics and receiving care.

But demonstrations outside of clinics are still common. My own research has shown the effectiveness of the anti-abortion movement in influencing the landscape and language of reproductive health care and politics in the U.S. through actions such as protests outside clinics.

In Trump’s second term, the Justice Department has said that it will not prosecute demonstrators unless there are “extraordinary circumstances” or in cases involving “significant aggravating factors” such as “death, serious bodily harm, or serious property damage.”

In this post-Roe v. Wade moment, I argue that it is important to know the history of the FACE Act.

History of protests against abortion

The FACE Act was signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994 to guarantee access to abortion and reproductive health care that was, at the time, protected by the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision under the 14th Amendment.

Clinics that provide abortions have been subject to public harassment since the early 1970s, particularly following the expansion of access to abortion and reproductive health care more generally.

After the passage in 1970 of Title X of the Public Health Service Act, which authorized federal funding for reproductive health services, abortion opponents began staging protests. But public support for reproductive rights, including abortion, was growing – along with the relaxation of government restrictions on the procedure.

Abortion foes also protested the legalization of abortion in New York state that same year. Following the legalization, the first Planned Parenthood health center to provide abortion services was established. The legalization in New York eventually led to the Roe v. Wade decision that protected abortion at the federal level.

By the 1970s, the movement against abortion had become a cohesive coalition of conservative Catholics and Protestants. They argued that providing reproductive health care was immoral because they believed that life begins at conception. The white evangelical anti-abortion movement, which followed, pursued many of the physical blockade and other tactics of early Catholic groups.

Operation Rescue, founded in 1986, was one of the largest evangelical groups that protested outside of clinics. During its protests, the movement’s members held up signs with images of aborted fetuses to scare patients into leaving the clinic. They also sat or lay down in front of clinics, using their bodies to physically block patients from entering.

About 1,000 people were arrested for blockading clinics through Operation Rescue on Oct. 30, 1988. Evangelical and Catholic groups working together, such as the Pro-Life Action League, still use these same tactics today.

FACE Act to protect clinics

The FACE Act protects clinics from being physically threatened, blockaded or damaged. It also protects patients going into clinics from being physically or verbally harassed.

Before the FACE act, protests frequently turned violent. In March 1993, David Gunn, an abortion provider and clinic director, was shot and killed by an abortion opponent outside a clinic in Pensacola, Florida, as he was walking in to work. Since 1993, at least 11 people have been killed in abortion clinic attacks in cities across the country, including Buffalo, Birmingham, Wichita and Boston.

The FACE Act was one of the first laws to physically protect reproductive health clinics. Several state and local laws created “buffer” zones around clinics, which were upheld by the Supreme Court decision Hill v. Colorado of 2000. This case upheld a Colorado law that prohibits individuals from approaching a patient within 8 feet of a health care clinic to protest or distribute educational materials. However, only three states and five municipalities have successfully passed buffer laws so far.

There continues to be pushback. In February 2025, the Supreme Court refused to hear arguments challenging existing local buffer laws. However, many anti-abortion advocates continue to bring related cases, citing their rights to protest under the First Amendment.

Tactics of protests

A key aspect of these protests is the concept of “public witness.” Public witnessing draws from the evangelical belief of witnessing – testifying about God’s message to save people’s souls. Protesters outside clinics believe they are sharing God’s truth through acts of disobedience, including singing, praying and reciting scripture loudly during clinic hours.

Contemporary activists in the anti-abortion movement call these tactics “sidewalk counseling,” believing they are counseling patients walking into reproductive health care clinics about the dangers of abortion while standing on the sidewalk in front of the clinic. These activists tell patients that abortion causes infertility, mental health disorders and cancer – claims that have been medically debunked.

Today, anti-abortion activists often congregate outside clinics on days they know a doctor will be on site to provide abortion care. I’ve interviewed many of these protesters, some of whom scream and cry as they lay prostrate on the sidewalk; they blast Christian music to distract and disorient patients seeking medical care.

Protesters sometimes also use violent tactics near the clinic. In 2012, protesters set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Wisconsin; in 2020, they threw a Molotov cocktail at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Florida; and in 2022, they attached locks to the gate of a New York clinic and poured glue to seal it.

What happens if the FACE Act goes away?

People attend the annual March for Life rally on the National Mall on Jan. 24, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

At the annual March for Life national anti-abortion demonstration on Jan. 24, 2025, one of the major celebrations was Trump’s pardon of anti-abortion extremists. There was also a call to repeal the act that imprisoned them in the first place and a bill introduced in Congress that would repeal prohibitions related to the FACE Act.

If the FACE Act is repealed, I argue that this will empower anti-abortion advocates to continue clinic blockades and other direct actions that will prevent patients from seeking reproductive health care.

Micki Burdick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.