President Joe Biden issued a flurry of pardons as he left office, but I’m more interested in getting some long overdue and deeply justified pardons from another president, the new occupant of the White House.

This is my personal request to President Donald Trump: Free the Pro Life 21!

During the Biden administration, there was a serious uptick in prosecutions of pro-life activists under what is called the FACE Act: Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances.

The act, which was found to be constitutional even though it severely restricts the First Amendment rights of anti-abortion activists, also prohibits preventing access to places of worship, but let’s be real: The act was passed by a Congress that saw pro-lifers like me as a threat to public safety.

Religious institutions were an afterthought, and you will note that the “C” in FACE doesn’t stand for church.

Abortion supporters will have you think there is a real threat to women’s health and safety by proclaiming that since they can’t get the unlimited procedures that were available before Roe was struck down, they are just like Dr. George Tiller, the abortionist who was gunned down in, of all places, a church.

They somehow managed to convince Biden’s Justice Department of that same fact, and the DOJ was able to convince some friendly federal judges that grandmothers praying rosaries in front of Planned Parenthood were domestic terrorists.

“Yes, your honor, Mom Mom Philomena with her scapular is identical to Eric Rudolph with his bombs.”

I know it’s not exactly a laughing matter, but I have to chuckle so I don’t cry. The mere idea that people who are fighting for the dignity of unborn life are a threat to national safety is as ludicrous as the idea that abortion is health care.

When the successful execution of that medical procedure ends in dismemberment and death for one of the participants, it’s hard to argue its salutary aspects.

Biden and crew were concerned with the welfare of death row inmates like Kiboni Savage, who had incinerated children but were upset that grandmothers would raise their voices and peacefully use their bodies to preserve the lives of the unknown.

Many of the people who were convicted of blocking access to the clinics were simply engaged in civil disobedience.

Remember the students who sat at the segregated lunch counters, and refused to move?

That sort of stuff. A few chained themselves to the chairs in abortion clinics and refused to leave.

That’s called trespass. And yet, because of this federal law, a large number of them were sentenced to years in prison.

Fortunately, the Thomas More Society has jumped into action.

Devoted to defending life, family and freedom, the nonprofit based out of Chicago takes its name from the great British saint, patron of lawyers and prisoners of conscience, who gave up his own life in defense of his morals and his virtue.

This week, the society filed a petition with incoming president Trump to pardon the Pro Life 21.

According to Senior Counsel Steve Crampton, “With these requests for presidential pardons for 21 peaceful pro-life advocates, we urge President Trump to right the grievous wrongs of the Biden administration’s weaponization of the Department of Justice.

"These 21 peaceful pro-lifers, many of whom are currently imprisoned for bravely standing up for unborn life, are upstanding citizens and pillars of their communities.

"Through full and unconditional pardons for these pro-life advocates, President Trump has the chance to remedy the harm done to them and their families, deliver on his campaign promises, and repair trust in our constitutional order.”

I’ve attended numerous pro-life rallies and dinners, and have been the keynote speaker at pro-life events.

I’ve also prayed in front of my local Planned Parenthood clinic. So far, I haven’t been taken away in shackles.

I feel lucky to have made it through the Biden administration in one piece.

But far too many of my fellow travelers, the people who spend hot August afternoons and frigid December mornings standing in witness to the barbarity that is abortion, have been arrested on ridiculous charges pursuant to a ridiculous federal law that does nothing to protect women.

It exists solely to punish, and ultimately destroy, the pro-life movement.

It is foolish to think that will happen.

We were able to get Roe overturned after a half-century of efforts, and we will continue to fight until abortion is both irrelevant, and seen as a profound human rights violation.

Let’s hope President Trump helps us send that message, by pardoning these prisoners of conscience.

Copyright 2025 Christine Flowers