There may be some good news on the horizon for pro-life advocates who stand outside abortion facilities praying for moms and babies and teaching the truth about abortion. Last week, the Senate voted to confirm Kash Patel as the ninth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He stated that he was “honored” by the confirmation and that “the American people deserve an FBI that is transparent, accountable, and committed to justice.” He continued, “The politicalization of our justice system has eroded public trust—but that ends today. My mission as director is clear: let good cops be cops—and rebuild trust in the FBI.”
Trust in the FBI is something that we desperately need today, as that trust has been eroded over the last several years under the Biden administration. We must never forget one of the most blatant acts of persecution that made us question not only the integrity but the legitimacy of the FBI: the early morning raid of the home of Mark Houck. Houck is the pro-life advocate who was arrested because he pushed a man away from his young son, whom the man was accosting, as father and son prayed outside an abortion facility. That led to charges under the FACE Act and to the subsequent swarm of FBI agents into his home. Mark was arrested and later acquitted of all charges, but the scars remain.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (or FACE) Act was added to the criminal code in 1994 to prohibit people from “intentionally injuring, intimidating, or interfering with, or attempting to injure, intimidate, or interfere, any person by force, threat of force, or physical obstruction because that person is or has been, or in order to intimidate such person or any other person or any class of persons from, obtaining or providing reproductive health services” and to prohibit people from “intentionally damaging or destroying the property of a facility, or attempting to do so, because such facility provides reproductive health services, or intentionally damaging or destroying the property of a place of religious worship.”
On its face (no pun intended), the act may seem like it’s there to protect, but under the Biden administration, many pro-life advocates were unnecessarily prosecuted and imprisoned for simply trying to protect babies and moms.
Judie Brown, president of American Life League, recently stated that “the FACE Act has been a harbinger of bad news for pro-life groups for more than twenty years.” I could not agree more. When pro-lifers are targeted for peaceful activism, something is incredibly wrong with our system.
So we can feel hopeful that the new director wants to rebuild trust in the FBI. During the confirmation hearings, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri (R), asked Patel if he would end this targeting of people based on religious beliefs. Patel responded, “There will be no such targeting if I’m confirmed as FBI director.”
Patel, who is a former chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense, also served at the National Security Council as the deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism. He has worked extensively in the intelligence community and says that two of the main evils he plans to target will be drugs and sex trafficking.
This is the kind of FBI action we need, not the kind that will ignore violence in our streets but prosecute people for protesting violence in the womb.
With this new appointment, we can hopefully start to regain some trust not only in our government, but in the arm of the government that enforces laws. President Trump was off to a positive start in instilling this trust, as in his first week in office, he showed compassion and pardoned the 23 pro-lifers who had been wrongly imprisoned under the FACE Act by the Biden administration.
These people, many of them parents who were forced to leave their spouses and children, were ripped from their homes and thrown into jail like common criminals. They sacrificed their comfort and their livelihoods to protect vulnerable preborn babies. Trump’s pardoning of them was a great step forward, and it was the beginning of, we hope, four years or more of reestablishing trust.
But trust must be earned, and it’s earned when promises are consistently kept.
Only time will tell if the new FBI director will adhere to his word, but we hope and pray that he focuses on those who commit violent acts rather than on those who pray to stop violent acts.
This article first appeared in LifeSiteNews at lifesitenews.com/blogs/kash-patels-confirmation-as-fbi-director-is-a-good-sign-for-pro-lifers-heres-why/?utm_source=most_recent&utm_campaign=usa.
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