Pro-life pregnancy center files FACE Act lawsuit after DOJ fails to indict vandals
A network of pro-life pregnancy centers that saw one of its offices vandalized multiple times by pro-abortion activists is suing two individuals responsible for vandalism against the facility after the U.S. Department of Justice declined to press charges against them.
In a statement Tuesday, CompassCare announced that it filed a Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act complaint in federal court last week against pro-abortion activists Jennifer Page and Hannah Kamke in connection with incidents that took place at its Amherst, New York, facility.
The FACE Act "makes it unlawful for a person to use force, the threat of force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure or intimidate a person because he or she is or has been obtaining or providing reproductive health services."
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The complaint, filed Thursday, maintains that Page violated the FACE Act by engaging in a counterprotest to CompassCare's May 2021 "Walk for Life," where "pro-abortion extremists banded together in disguise to block the public highway, to prevent pro-life citizens from exercising their first amendment rights, and to threaten and intimidate patients, employees, prospective patients and supporters of CompassCare from working at, seeking services from or supporting CompassCare."
The complaint alleges that other actions taken by Page include "trespassing on the property and writing graffiti in the driveway of the facility, thereby blocking entrance to the facility's parking lot and intending to deter, and in fact deterring, staff, volunteers and patients from entering the facility." Page was also charged with theft by Amherst Police after stealing a "No Trespassing" sign from the facility.
Kamke was charged in connection with the Mar. 16, 2023, defacing of CompassCare's roadside sign by spray-painting the word "Liars" on it. She pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct last month and was ordered to pay $2,580 in restitution.
The complaint asks a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York to issue an order preventing the defendants from going within 100 feet of any pro-life pregnancy center in the state of New York and any CompassCare facility as well as a "judgment against Defendants, jointly and severally, in the amount yet to be determined for compensatory and punitive damages." CompassCare is also asking the court to award its attorney's fees.
While Kamke has been charged by local law enforcement with defacing the CompassCare sign that received national attention, the perpetrators of the firebombing of the facility last year remain at large. The incident is one of several examples of pro-abortion vandalism following the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2022 determination in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion.
"It is ridiculous that as pro-life citizens we are forced to do the job of both the FBI and the DOJ," CompassCare CEO Rev. Jim Harden declared in response to the lawsuit. "The FBI refused to investigate so we hired private investigators. The DOJ refuses to indict, so we brought FACE Act charges."
The CompassCare CEO has been a persistent critic of the Biden administration's handling of the investigation into the targeting of pro-life pregnancy centers following the Dobbs decision. CompassCare previously partnered with the Thomas More Society to hire private investigators to find the vandals responsible for the attack.
While the FBI has offered a $25,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators of the firebombing of CompassCare, Harden believes that "If the FBI is interested in quelling the nationwide hate crimes against pro-life organizations, they would offer a reward for information leading to the arrests of all [pregnancy center] attacks, not just for the pro-abortion terrorists who bombed our facility."
Harden has expressed concern that federal law enforcement has operated under a double standard when it comes to charging people with vandalism of "reproductive health" clinics based on whether or not the facility performs abortions.
Harden said the prosecution and arrest of a man who set fire to a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Illinois slightly more than a week after the attack took place and the capture of a man who attempted to set fire to a Michigan Planned Parenthood within four days are examples of how "the FBI has the tools, skill, and manpower to bring these criminals to justice when it is politically favorable."
In March, Attorney General Merrick Garland was questioned during a U.S. Senate hearing about the Justice Department's handling of violence and vandalism at pro-life pregnancy clinics.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said that from 2022 to early 2023, the federal government charged 34 pro-life activists for "blocking access to or vandalizing abortion clinics," while two individuals have been charged for vandalizing pro-life churches and pregnancy care centers.
Garland stated that the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act "applies equally to efforts to damage, blockade clinics, whether they are a pregnancy resource center or they are an abortion center."
"You are quite right, there are many more prosecutions with respect to the blocking of the abortion centers, but that is generally because those actions are taken with photography at the time, during the daylight," Garland said. "Seeing the person who did it is quite easy."
"Those who are attacking the pregnancy resource centers, which is a horrid thing to do, are doing this at night, in the dark," he added.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]
