January 24, 2025
By Adedoja Adesoji
President Donald Trump has issued pardons to nearly two dozen people who were convicted of blocking access to abortion clinics and temporarily shutting them down. Trump justified his decision, saying, “They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people.”
He described the group as “peaceful protesters,” despite many being charged with barricading clinic doors, pushing and injuring clinic workers, and preventing patients from accessing health services
The pardoned individuals include a group of abortion opponents who forced their way into a Washington clinic in 2020 and blocked its entrance for several hours.
Five of them were convicted in 2023 for using physical obstructions to injure, intimidate, and interfere with clinic employees and patients.
Also pardoned is Bevelyn Williams, a Tennessee woman sentenced to 41 months in prison for interfering with individuals seeking reproductive health services.
Williams was accused of crushing a clinic staff member’s hand in a door while attempting to block access to a New York City facility in 2020.
The National Abortion Federation has expressed concern over Trump’s decision, stating that it “sends a dangerous message that blocking access to abortion clinics and harassing providers and patients is acceptable behavior”
