AMHERST, New York (LifeSiteNews) – A CompassCare pro-life pregnancy center in New York has filed a lawsuit accusing pro-abortion activists of violating a federal law that so far the federal government has only been vigorous in enforcing against pro-lifers.

As previously covered by LifeSiteNews, CompassCare’s Amherst office was firebombed last year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade, then defaced with a spray-painted message of “LIARS” in March. The attacks were believed to be linked to a radical pro-abortion group called Jane’s Revenge, which took credit for similar acts across the country and threatened “open season” and “rage” against pro-lifers in the event of Roe’s fall.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) Omaha field office offered a reward for information on Jane’s Revenge after it left notes threatening to “shoot up” pro-lifers in Nebraska, but overall the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) under President Joe Biden has been accused of not taking seriously pro-abortion violence, particularly regarding the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which ostensibly protects both abortion centers and facilities offering alternatives. Yet there have been many more charges on behalf of the former than the latter.

The Washington Times reported that CompassCare is suing pro-abortion New Yorkers Hannah Kamke and Jennifer Page for targeting them in violation of the FACE Act. Kamke previously pled guilty to disorderly conduct for vandalizing a CompassCare sign, and Page has organized protests that have hindered access to the center’s parking lot.

The suit, which seeks both monetary damages and orders keeping both individuals at least 100 feet away from pro-life pregnancy centers in the Empire State, notes that “[d]espite the numerous attacks against pro-life groups, there have been appallingly few prosecutions of the attackers.”

According to the Times, since May 2022 (when the Supreme Court’s intention to overturn Roe was first leaked) the federal government has charged more than 30 pro-lifers for FACE Act violations but only four pro-abortion activists despite America experiencing 88 attacks on pregnancy centers and more than 200 on Catholic churches during that same period.

“It is ridiculous that as pro-life citizens we are forced to do the job of both the FBI and DOJ,” CompassCare CEO James Harden said. “The FBI refused to investigate, so we hired private investigators. The DOJ refuses to indict, so we brought FACE charges.”

In March, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland claimed to Congress that the discrepancy was due not to politics but to infractions against abortion centers generally being in broad daylight with abundant witnesses and photography to more easily identify perpetrators. He also claimed the DOJ has reached out to victimized churches and pregnancy centers.

But “pro-life centers and organizations that were attacked over the summer in the fallout of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization leak, like Concerned Women for America, [say] they have not heard from the FBI,” the Daily Signal reported last October, citing an interview with CWA president Penny Nance. 

An example of the federal law enforcement apparatus’s disparate enthusiasm in such cases can be found in the case of Philadelphia pro-life activist Mark Houck.

While sidewalk counseling outside an abortion facility in 2021, Houck pushed 70-year-old pro-abortion activist Bruce Love, who had been harassing his then-12-year-old son. The family says Houck shoved the man away to protect the child from Love, who was verbally hostile and had intruded on his personal space, and though Love fell he was uninjured.

The altercation, a local matter that had long since been tossed out of court when Love failed to appear for a hearing in his civil suit, somehow drew the interest of the DOJ under Garland and Biden, which on the morning of September 23, 2022 sent a team of 25 to 30 FBI agents and around 15 vehicles to swarm their property.

Weapons drawn, “they started pounding on the door and yelling for us to open it,” according to Mark’s wife, Ryan-Marie. Frightening their children, the agents arrested Houck and took him away, charging him with violating the FACE Act due to a claimed “attack of a patient escort,” punishable by potentially a decade in prison and a $350,000 fine.

The case drew intense national scrutiny and outrage, and in January a jury found Houck not guilty of either felony the administration had charged him with.

Pro-lifers say something needs to be done about such double standards.

“CompassCare is leading the growing list of pro-life FACE Act victims that are calling for action from law enforcement,” the organization declares in its lawsuit. “CompassCare’s demand is simple: equal protection under the law.”