Anti-abortion activists have since ramped up their civil disobedience and protest actions, according to a report released Tuesday by the pro-abortion rights advocacy group National Abortion Federation.
The group found that blockades of abortion clinics increased from one in 2024 to six in 2025, while stalking of abortion providers and death threats against them more than doubled during that time — from 19 to 40 and from 38 to 81, respectively. Assault and battery incidents also ticked up from 19 in 2024 to 23 in 2025.
Trump’s pardon and reduced enforcement, the group’s CEO Brittany Fonteno said on a Tuesday press call, “sent a really clear and really dangerous message that people who harass, threaten and intimidate abortion providers and patients may not face consequences for violating the law, and we’re seeing the impact play out across the country.”
DOJ did not respond immediately to POLITICO’s request for comment.
Democrats on Capitol Hill argue that the fund can’t dole out money until Congress appropriates money for it, something they have vowed to prevent as they blast the effort as corrupt. The administration has countered that the fund can draw from an already appropriated pool that is set aside to settle claims against the federal government.
Questioned about the new fund at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing this week, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche argued it is an appropriate response to “years and years of weaponization” of the FACE Act and other laws.
Those who apply, he added, could receive either “an apology” or “monetary compensation.”
The Justice Department released a report in April revealing that the Biden administration relied on information from NAF and other abortion-rights advocacy groups in its FACE Act enforcement efforts. Though the prior administration enforced the law against both those who protested at abortion clinics and at anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers, the report argued such coordination showed bias.
