(LifeSiteNews) — Former President Donald Trump vowed to pardon or commute the sentences of recently jailed pro-life activists as well as “every political prisoner who’s been unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration.”
“Marxists and Stalinists in the administration got a Washington, D.C., jury to convict five pro-life activists who are now facing up to 11 years in prison for simple acts of protest,” Trump said during a speech at the 2023 Pray Vote Stand Summit on Friday
Trump referred to pro-life activists Lauren Handy, John Hinshaw, William Goodman, Heather Idoni, and Herb (Rosemary) Geraghty, 25, who were charged and found guilty on August 29 of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and conspiracy against rights for blocking access to the Washington Surgi-Clinic abortion mill in Washington, D.C., in October 2020 in their effort to save children from abortion.
On September 15, the day of Trump’s speech, pro-life rescuers Joan Andrews Bell, 74; Jonathan Darnel, 40; and Jean Marshall, 72, were found guilty of the same charges in connection to their involvement in the same rescue.
A leader of the “progressive” pro-life group to which some of the convicted belong accused the Department of Justice of weaponizing the FACE Act against peaceful pro-lifers in order to “cover up” infanticide committed by notorious abortionist Cesare Santangelo, who operates from the abortion facility at which they protested.
One of the convicted pro-lifers, Lauren Handy, had discovered the remains of roughly 100 aborted children, including five extremely late-term babies, from a discarded box from Santangelo’s facility and reported it to the Washington D.C. Police homicide unit only days before she and her fellow pro-life defendants were arrested.
During his Friday speech, Trump alluded to the fact that pro-lifers and conservatives in general have faced a barrage of what critics denounce as unjust and excessive prosecution under the Biden administration.
“Under Biden, others are being sentenced to 10, 15, and even 20 years in prison for retribution for their political beliefs, while Antifa and other groups burn-down cities like Portland, like Minneapolis. … They kill people, they loot, they plunder, and they go free,” Trump said.
“To reverse these cruel travesties of justice, tonight I’m announcing that the moment I win the election, I will appoint a special task force to rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who’s been unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration … so that I can study the situation very quickly and sign their pardons or commutations on Day One,” Trump said. “Never again will the federal government be used to target religious believers.”
“It was God-fearing patriots like you who built this country, and it is God-fearing patriots like you who are going to save our country,” Trump added. “Americans of faith are not a threat to our country; Americans of faith are the soul of our country.”
“The radical Left is coming after all of us, because they know that our allegiance is not to them; our allegiance is to our country and to our Creator,” Trump said. Under the Biden administration, America has become “like a banana republic. We’re like a Third World country.”
Trump’s promise to pardon the convicted pro-lifers and other “political prisoners” of the Biden administration came a day after a controversial Meet the Press interview in which he said it was a “terrible mistake” for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to have signed a six-week abortion ban, although this interview wasn’t made public until a day after Trump’s Friday speech.
While Trump has been widely hailed by advocates for the unborn as the most pro-life president in history, his Thursday remarks showed his reluctance to uncompromisingly defend unborn babies’ right to life and were promptly denounced by pro-life leaders, including Lila Rose and Abby Johnson.
Trump nevertheless played up his pro-life record as president during his speech in D.C., pointing to his reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy banning government funding of foreign pro-abortion groups, as well as his appointment of Supreme Court Justices collectively responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade, which allowed states to ban abortion at any point after conception.
The former president further paid homage to the “Christian-Judeo” heritage of the U.S. in a room dominated by devoted Christians.
“This election will decide whether America will be ruled by Marxists, fascists, communist tyrants who want to smash the Judeo-Christian heritage, or whether America will be saved by God-fearing, freedom-loving patriots like all of the people in this room,” he continued. “We’re going to take back our culture. And we’re going to make America great again, greater than ever before.”
The former president proceeded to lay out what his priorities would be if he wins re-election in 2024.
“Probably number one on my list … I will sign a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation — think of it, sexual mutilation — in all 50 states,” Trump said. “They mutilate our children and we’re not going to let that happen.”
He slammed “California’s depraved new laws that strip parents of parental rights and that encourage minors to be transported across state lines for sexual mutilation,” he said. “And we will prosecute those involved in this sick California scheme for violating federal laws against kidnapping, sex trafficking, child abuse, and the deprivation of their civil rights.”
Trump also promised to “immediately” shut down the Department of Education and “move everything back to the states,” as well as cut federal funding “for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children,” and withhold taxpayer funds from any school with a COVID-19 mask or vaccine mandate.