[The following press release, which is reprinted with permission, was issued on October 17, 2022, by Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, whose website states: “Our mission is to mobilize grassroots anti-abortion activists for direct action and educate on the exploitative influence of the Abortion Industrial Complex through an anti-capitalist lens.”]

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On Friday, pro-life atheist Herb Geraghty, 26, was indicted by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s U.S. Department of Justice under the FACE (Freedom to Access Clinic Entrances) Act. This is part of the Biden administration’s ongoing persecution of nonviolent anti-abortion activists and leaders.

Geraghty is the executive director of Rehumanize International, a founding board member of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, and is the first atheist to be charged with alleged violations of FACE.

Geraghty is the latest to join the growing list of peaceful pro-life individuals targeted by AG Garland and the Biden administration’s extreme pro-abortion agenda.

This is not about judicial prosecution; it is discriminatory political persecution.

If convicted of the offenses, these nonviolent defendants each face up to 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $260,000.

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.

The DOJ has charged the defendants with conspiring to “deny civil rights,” but the Supreme Court has made it clear that abortion is not a constitutional right.

Terrisa Bukovinac, founder and executive director of PAAU stated, “We stand in solidarity with Herb and the others being ruthlessly prosecuted by the Biden Administration and Garland’s DOJ. This abuse of power is an unacceptable violation of our constitution. We believe Herb will be vindicated from these draconian charges and we will not allow the Abortion Industrial Complex to use fear, isolation, and the threat of incarceration to stop us from protecting unborn children from their killers.” Caroline Taylor Smith, Public Relations Director of PAAU stated, “The fear that Biden and Garland’s DOJ is attempting to instill in the anti-abortion movement will never succeed the way they hope. We will never cease to act while the genocide of abortion still has a grip on this country.”

The charges against Geraghty and others are particularly problematic because Garland’s DOJ has failed to make any arrests for the targeted vandalizing, blocking, or firebombing of more than 70 churches and pregnancy centers—entities supposedly granted equal protection under the FACE Act.

We implore Congress to impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland and to repeal the archaic and oppressive FACE Act.