GOP Push to Gut FACE Act Exposes Deadly Agenda Against Reproductive Rights

Republicans in the House Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government are once again targeting the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a bipartisan 1994 law designed to shield abortion providers and patients from violent attacks and harassment. Ranking Member Mary Gay Scanlon delivered a blistering opening statement at the April 28, 2026 hearing, calling out the GOP’s relentless attempts to weaken the law as a dangerous, ideologically driven attack on reproductive rights.

Scanlon made it clear this is not a new battle. “Today is the third time in as many years that this subcommittee, under Republican leadership, is holding a hearing to undermine the FACE Act,” she said. The effort to repeal or gut the law is explicitly backed by the extremist “Project 2025 Manifesto,” a Heritage Foundation blueprint advocating authoritarian governance and the dismantling of federal protections.

The FACE Act was enacted in response to a wave of violence against abortion providers and clinics, including arson, bombings, chemical attacks, and even murders. It criminalizes the use of force, threats, intimidation, or physical obstruction aimed at people seeking or providing reproductive health services. Yet, despite clear evidence of ongoing violent harassment, anti-choice forces have repeatedly tried to portray the law as an infringement on free speech or peaceful protest.

Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, anti-abortion extremists have been emboldened, leading to a spike in clinic blockades and death threats. The National Abortion Federation reported 777 instances of clinic obstruction in 2024 alone, alongside nearly 300 death threats against providers and patients in just two years.

Scanlon highlighted harrowing examples of violence and intimidation, including a Michigan woman forced to abandon a critical abortion appointment after anti-choice protesters blocked clinic entrances and continued harassment even in the parking lot. Another incident involved extremists physically invading a Virginia clinic and attempting to seize a patient.

Republicans have tried to spin these attacks as peaceful religious expression, wrongly accusing the Biden Justice Department of selective enforcement. But Scanlon dismissed these claims as “cherry-picked,” “shoddy,” and “misleading,” echoing debunked conspiracy theories from Project 2025. The facts are clear: the FACE Act is applied based on criminal conduct, not ideology or protest style.

The stakes could not be higher. As anti-choice violence escalates, weakening the FACE Act would leave patients and providers vulnerable to physical harm and intimidation. Scanlon’s message is urgent and uncompromising: protecting access to reproductive healthcare means enforcing the law against violence and obstruction, not dismantling it for political gain.

This hearing is yet another chapter in the GOP’s broader authoritarian agenda to erase reproductive rights and federal safeguards. Only Clowns Are Orange will continue to track these attacks and expose the dangerous consequences of their extremist policies.