On Thursday, January 24, we got great news. President Donald Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists including Lauren Handy, Jonathan Darnel, Jay Smith, John Hinshaw, William Goodman, Joan Bell, Paulette Harlow, Jean Marshall, Heather Idoni, and Herb Geraghty, all 10 of whom were involved in a 2020 blockade of a D.C. abortion clinic.

“I cannot express the gratitude I have [for] everyone who wrote me, sent books, donated, and advocated for myself and the other FACE defendants since the start of my incarceration a year and a half ago,” Geraghty tweeted after the pardon. “I’ll be celebrating with friends and loved ones this weekend but the work doesn’t stop toward seeking justice for the unborn and liberation for us all from this culture of death and exploitation.”

Many of the pardoned pro-lifers were elderly, a concern Trump himself shared. As I noted here after Handy’s sentencing, “Bell, known as the ‘matriarch of pro-life activism’ is 76 years old. Her husband, Christopher, has previously written for Human Life Review.”

We reported here on Tuesday Jan. 22that advocates including the Thomas More Society were petitioning the Trump administration to pardon pro-life activists targeted by the Biden administration. Apparently, Trump was listening.

“They should not have been prosecuted,” Trump said as he granted the pardons. “This is a great honor to sign this.”

Also this week, House Republicans led by Rep. Chip Roy introduced a bill to repeal the FACE Act, the 1994 act the Biden administration used to impose harsh sentences on peaceful pro-lifers.

“Americans just spent the last four years being targeted by a weaponized justice system,” Roy said. “The FACE Act was one of the primary weapons of abuse — being used to politically target, arrest, and jail pro-life Americans for speaking out and standing up for life …. Data my office obtained from Merrick Garland’s DOJ showed that 97% of FACE Act prosecutions from 1994-2024 were against pro-life Americans.”

Trump granted the pardons just one day before the March for Life in Washington, where Vice President J.D. Vance is joining pro-lifers and the president will deliver remarks via video message.

The pardons of nearly two dozen pro-lifers, congressional efforts to repeal the FACE Act, and White House support of the annual March for Life are all great news for pro-lifers (in one week!). But, as Geraghty said after his release, “The work doesn’t stop toward seeking justice for the unborn.”