Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act

Introduced by Democrats Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative Charles Schumer, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act was passed with bipartisan support and signed into U.S. law by President Bill Clinton in 1994. The act prohibits vandalism of clinic property and using “force or threat of force or… physical obstruction” to attempt to or actually injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone obtaining or providing reproductive health services. It also protects access to “placets] of worship.” Additionally, the FACE act describes penalties for violators. The act does not prohibit “peaceful picketing or other peaceful demonstration,” including nonthreatening shouting, photography, and distributing antiabortion materials outside of clinics. Every federal appeals court in the United States has heard FACE cases and ruled the act constitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court has never reviewed the act.

Between 1977 and 1993, congressional investigations found that abortion clinics experienced 36 bombings, 81 arsons, 131 death threats, 84 assaults, 2 kidnappings, 327 invasions, 71 chemical attacks and more than 6,000 blockades. These investigations also found that patients had been threatened, pushed, grabbed, spit on, pinned to the ground, and beaten. The first murders of clinic workers occurred in 1993, and by 2000, 7 workers, including doctors, had been killed and another 13 had been injured.

The Civil Rights Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, was initially used to prosecute blockaders. However, in its 1993 decision of Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such use unconstitutional. The next year in National Organization for Women v. Scheidler, the Court found that the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 (RICO) could be used to sue violent protestors. However, the decision was overturned in 2002 m American Coalition for Life Activists v. Planned Parenthood.

Under the FACE Act, maximum sentences for first-time offenders range from 6 months to 1 year in prison or $10,000 to $100,000 in fines, depending on the severity of the violation. Maximum penalty for offenders committing bodily injury is 10 years in prison and life imprisonment for those convicted of murder. Civil suits can ask for a maximum reward between $10,000 and $25,000, depending on the severity of the violation.

In the decade after the FACE Act was enacted, 46 criminal prosecutions resulted in 71 convictions and 17 civil lawsuits resulted in rewards. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that reviewed reports of clinic violence in the 2 years before and after passage of the act found 21 percent fewer blockades; 17 percent fewer acts of vandalism; 15 percent fewer invasions, bomb and death threats; 13 percent fewer assaults; 4 percent fewer arsons; and 2 percent fewer bombings. More than 90 percent of providers and 60 percent of U.S. attorneys believed that the FACE act was at least partially responsible for the reduction in clinic violence. In 2000, less than 25 percent of clinics experienced blockades, invasions, bombings, arsons, chemical attacks, gunfire, bomb threats, death threats or murder, compared with more than 50 percent of clinics experiencing such violence in 1994.

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