During a ludicrous forced-birther symposium on Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene breathlessly said, “We will repeal the FACE Act if we can get our opportunity,” referring to the 1994 law that protects health providers and patients from the intimidation and violence associated with the “pro-life” movement’s activism. The hearing, titled a “Investigating the Black Market of Baby Organ Harvesting,” featured a lot of imagery meant to elicit trauma, and little meaningful evidence showing that reproductive health has anything to do with “harvesting” anything.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act was passed in response to the rising violence of anti-abortion activists. And Greene’s reference to the law is just the latest maneuver by right-wing extremists to take away even more access to reproductive health care following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which eliminated the constitutional right to abortion.
While Greene made her promise, she was joined by Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who has authored legislation to repeal the FACE Act. Roy’s bill has 39 cosponsors, and the Senate’s companion bill, authored by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, has five, including the always-extreme Cindy Hyde-Smith from Mississippi, the cowardly J.D. Vance of Ohio, and the misogynistic and ignorant Josh Hawley.
The mythology that anti-reproductive-rights activists and politicians like Greene are trying to create is that the FACE Act represents a double-standard for anti-abortion activists, whom Greene and Roy frequently paint as “peaceful” protesters persecuted by a law that has become “weaponized.” Of course, when you look into the people prosecuted under the FACE Act, these right-wing postulations fall flat.
The Department of Justice’s list of violent “pro-life” activists is very long. It includes people who have allegedly thrown molotov cocktails at and into clinics. It includes people who have allegedly thrown concrete blocks through clinic windows. It includes people using ropes, chains, and their own bodies to block women from accessing clinics and the reproductive health care the clinics provide. It also includes mass shootings.
The Republican Party does not have solutions for the many ills our country faces. They do have real plans to roll back many of the rights we have enjoyed for decades if they are able to take back the Congress and the White House this fall.
The president of the Center for American Progress, Patrick Gaspard, joins us to give his thoughts on what the Republican Party’s actual message is.
