Saving FACE: What to Know About The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act
Abortion clinics, their staff, and the patients seeking care often face instances of blockading, harassment, threats, and violence. This blockage of access to basic healthcare services resulted in the 1994 bipartisan passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Erin Matson, Co-Founder, President, and CEO of Reproaction, sits down to talk with us about the FACE Act and how the current Trump administration is attempting to disassemble its protection.
Upon his return to office, Trump pardoned 23 individuals convicted of FACE Act violations, while at the same time, the Department of Justice announced it would only in “extreme” circumstances enforce the FACE Act. Shortly thereafter, the Heritage Foundation released a white paper calling for the FACE Act’s repeal.
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Jennie: Welcome to rePROs Fight Back, a podcast on all things related to sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice. [music intro]
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Jennie: Hey rePROs, whenever anything is happening in the courts, especially when it comes to reproductive rights and social justice, I immediately turn to the Boom! Lawyered podcast by Rewire News Group to help me understand what just happened, but also the greater impact. Hosted by the amazing Imani Gandy and Jess Pieklo, Boom! Lawyered brings us some humanity and humor to the law at a time when we need it the most. You can find Boom! Lawyered on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Jennie: Hi rePROs. How's everybody doing? I'm your host, Jennie Wetter, and my pronouns are she/her. So y'all, just so you know, this is going to be a little bit of a longer intro and a little heavy, but it seems like an important time to take a moment and talk about what we are seeing with the U.S. eliminating USAID and cutting off the funding for the United Nations Population Fund or UNFPA. UNFPA just got a bunch of new data on what it's meaning to their programs that they shared with me, so I wanted to make sure to share it with y'all. But first, before we get there, let's start with the U.S. government's decision to burn almost $10 million worth of contraception that is currently being held in a warehouse in Belgium. There are IUDs, implants, birth control pills, and other forms of contraception that the U.S. has already bought and paid for with U.S. tax dollars and that were intended to go to clinics in Africa. When DOGE suddenly froze all of USAID programs before shutting the agency down, it meant that this contraception that was already bought and paid for was stuck in these warehouses. Since the U.S. government is not going to be restarting those programs, it had to think about what to do with the contraception. UNFPA and MSI Reproductive Choices stepped forward to try to buy that contraception from the U.S. government and redistribute it to where it needs to go. I think there were other people who have tried to buy this contraception from them at no cost to the U.S. government. Instead, the U.S. government has decided that they would rather spend $160,000 to burn the contraception than sell it to somebody who is going to get it into the hands that it needs to be in. You know, this freezing of U.S. global assistance, the contraception that is currently in the warehouses, it is really messing up with the global supply chain, particularly around contraception. We know that this loss of contraception is going to have an impact on the lives of women and girls around the world. There's data that shows this $10 million in contraception that is in just this one warehouse would have been enough to prevent 362,000 unintended pregnancies, 110,000 unsafe abortions and prevented 718 maternal deaths. When you talk about waste, fraud, and abuse, which is supposedly what DOGE was going after, I cannot think of a clearer example of waste, fraud, and abuse than burning contraception that we already paid for, that other groups were willing to buy from the U.S. government to ensure it got to the people who need them. It is horrifying. Unfortunately, we can't stop there. The U.S. also cut off all funding for UNFPA and UNFPA has shared with me how that is impacting their work. Huge, huge thank you to Rachel Moynihan. Thank you, Rachel, for sending that my way so that I can make sure to share it with my audience. So, I did trim down this list a little bit because it was quite long, but I also wanted to keep most of it intact because I wanted you to have a real understanding of the scope of the impact that we are talking about from this administration's decisions. So, take a deep breath because the numbers of lives that are being impacted is pretty shocking, but we can't look away. So, it is impacting safe spaces and hospitals. The funding cuts are forcing closures and reductions in critical facilities and programs and dismantling vital humanitarian infrastructure, particularly for refugees and women and girls in crisis-affected settings. So, that means in Palestine, UNFPA safe spaces for women and girls cannot be established, 40 of them. Medicine cannot be provided to 80 health facilities and postpartum kits for 20,000 mothers and newborns are not going to be able to be distributed. In Chad, that means 19 health facilities and two mobile clinics have closed due to U.S. funding cuts, leaving 45,784 women and girls without access to life-saving sexual and reproductive health services. We're seeing a particularly adverse impact on refugee populations. In Pakistan, UNFPA programs supporting health services in 62 health facilities located in refugee villages have been terminated, directly impacting 1.7 million people, among whom 1.2 million are Afghan refugees. In Turkey, 60,000 Syrian refugees have been left without access to urgent and essential services, as UNFPA cuts down its response by 60%. In the Central African Republic, approximately 70,000 women and girls in refugee camps and host communities are no longer receiving life-saving sexual and reproductive health services due to clinic closures. Beyond the impacts on UNFPA's direct programming, the loss of U.S. funding is also dismantling critical health and protection infrastructure across humanitarian settings. In Haiti, where the U.S. was the country's primary humanitarian aid donor, the loss of U.S. support means severe disruption to case management, referrals, psychosocial support, and other protective services for many of the 1.2 million in need of GBV assistance this year. It is estimated that throughout Sudan, broader implications of U.S. funding cuts may result in around 5 million people, including 1.2 million women of reproductive age, ending up without access to health services, as the cuts have impacted 57% of the health cluster, including support to 335 health facilities across 15 states. Effects are being felt at every stage of supply chain operations with delays and preventing things from getting where they need to be. In South Sudan, dignity kits— they're essential packages distributed to women and girls in emergency settings to provide basic hygiene and personal care items— those dignity kit supplies are depleted with the supply pipeline expected to dry up without additional support. In the DRC, almost all local, national, and international health agencies currently lack the financial resources to maintain family planning services, particularly in areas affected by armed conflict, with the majority of implementing partners reporting total or near-total contraceptive stockouts. Also important, the rescissions package that the U.S. passed also clawed back funding for the UNFPA-UNICEF joint program on female genital mutilation. In the past, U.S. contributions have helped reach over 13 million women and young people and have saved more than 80,000 girls from FGM. This is, again, going to be a devastating loss for people's access to services. Another important place that is being impacted is undermining efforts for GBV response. In Cameroon's northwest and southwest regions, UNFPA women and girls’ safe spaces were prematurely handed over to local communities without sufficient resources for preparation, leading to closures of safe spaces in some locations, as well as the termination of skill building and financial literacy activities. Yeah, so just like so many areas that are being impacted. And like I said, this is just part of the very long list that UNFPA sent me on the ways that they are feeling the impacts of the loss of U.S. support. I know that was a lot, y'all. So again, let's all take a deep breath. There are a lot of lives that are being impacted, and it is shocking, and we cannot look away about what is being done in our name.
Jennie: Okay. I would like to say that this week's, turn to this week's interview, because it's going to be a lighter topic, but sorry, y'all. We're actually going to be talking about clinic violence, so not a lighter topic. But I am talking to the fantastic Erin Matson at Reproaction, so you know it's going to be a great conversation, even though, again, it will be a heavier topic, talking about clinic violence and attacks on the FACE Act. So with that, let's turn to my interview with Erin. Hi, Erin. Thank you so much for being here today.
Erin: Hey Jennie, thanks so much for having me.
Jennie: Before we get started, would you like to take a second and introduce yourself and include your pronouns?
Erin: Oh, yeah. Thank you so much. Hello, I'm Erin Matson. I use she/her pronouns, and I am co-founder and president and CEO of Reproaction, a group that leads bold action to increase access to abortion and advance reproductive justice.
Jennie: I am always excited to have you on, but I am extra excited to have you on today because I know you are such an expert in this area, and it's something I've not actually talked about on the podcast before, which is the FACE Act. But I think before we do that, maybe we need to take a little bit of a step back and talk about, before we talk about what it is: why it was necessary? Why did we even pass something called the FACE Act?
Erin: Yeah, no, thank you for that. So, here's the problem. Anti-abortion or abortion opponents have long resorted to violence, harassment, and bullying to stop people from accessing the care they need. And they're horrifying, Jennie. I don't know. Now, I know a lot of your listeners are very seasoned people in the reproductive health rights and justice movements, and they know what goes on outside of clinics. There's a lot of people, and there may be some people listening to this podcast who don't know what abortion opponents do. And so, there are routinely issues of blockading access to clinics. So, take a trip way down memory lane. Operation Rescue, a group that was founded by a man named Randall Terry, did these enormous events outside of Dr. George Tiller's clinic in Wichita, Kansas, where they brought people into the streets to blockade the clinic. There were open calls to violence. It is no accident that a provider that was targeted so frequently with these protests ultimately was assassinated and killed, because this is a form of encouraging terrorism against abortion providers. So, there is a long history of this. In 1994, following a number of assassinations of abortion providers, the FACE Act, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, was passed with bipartisan support. To say, okay.
Jennie: That's so wild to think about now, right?
Erin: Right, right. And it is wild to think about if you look at the politicians. But if you look at actual people, it's actually not that wild to think about. Because, you know, we're seeing people on all sides of the political spectrum voting for abortion on the ballot, for instance. Right? Like the politicians don't reflect it, but the people do. Yeah, for sure. So, yeah, I would say that was the primary impetus, was the blockades of the clinics and then several high-profile assassinations of abortion.
Jennie: Okay, so this new administration is... doing their best to undermine the FACE Act. So, what are some of the things that have been happening recently? So, you know, it has always been kind of one of those things that is more implemented or a little less implemented on whoever is in office, but this seems to have taken, like, a huge new step in the way it's being treated.
Erin: Yes, you are correct on that. This is a dramatically different dialogue than was taking place a year ago. Currently on the FACE Act…so, let's take a step back. Before Trump was elected, anti-abortion activists and leaders and groups, including more so-called mainstream leaders and groups, latched on to a call from the fringe to call on Trump to pardon 23 individuals who had been convicted of FACE Act violations. And I want to be very clear with you, Jennie, about what these people were doing. These people were physically blockading clinic entrances, slamming doors, screaming, yelling, shoving, in some cases, physically injuring people in the clinic. So really terrorizing people. These were violent attacks. And, well, on the campaign trail, about a year ago last summer, Trump pledged to pardon them. There were calls for him to do so on day one. We were watching real closely thinking, you know, is he going to do this at the same time that he does anticipated January 6th pardons? And by the way, heavy overlap in aims as well as some overlap in definite overlap and strategy. And we do know that there were some anti-abortion people who were there on January 6th, right? Who were part of that larger crowd outside the Capitol. So, pretty quickly after Trump came into office, he pardoned 23 violent individuals and immediately released them into the public. Several other things happened at the same, right around the same time in short order. The Department of Justice announced that it would no longer enforce the FACE Act, except in what it called, quote, "extreme," unquote, circumstances. At the same time, there has been a bubbling narrative for some time, and it's a disinformation narrative, that the FACE Act, so they claim, 'there's no problem with anti-abortion violence, that there's nothing happening outside of clinics. We don't need to worry about that. The real problem is peaceful reproductive health rights and justice activists, and they are attacking the anti-abortion pregnancy centers,' which is not happening at any significant scale in terms of actual things that have happened to brick and mortar facilities. Regardless, that's another piece of the puzzle. And so, they're trying to weaponize it on behalf of the anti-abortion pregnancy center. So, we've even seen some members of the Department of Justice openly calling for anti-abortion pregnancy centers to submit complaints and they want the FBI to investigate them. And then this is the wackadoodle thing that did not bubble up over a long period of time. Just all of a sudden, whizzing out like a boomerang in the sky out of nowhere comes this white paper from the Heritage Foundation that says, repeal the FACE Act. And I remember looking at that and going, oh my gosh, this just changed the tenor of what's happening immensely. So, in quick short order, Representative Chip Roy, introduced a bill to repeal the FACE Act. There have now been two hearings that have happened on the House side, as well as a markup session. Whether it goes to the full floor remains to be seen. But what I want to underscore is the change that has happened is this idea of repealing the FACE Act, which no one said before this year, has suddenly become very normalized. And in addition, with Trump pardoning these violent FACE Act violators in the Department of Justice saying we're not going to prosecute here, it appears to encourage open season on abortion providers.
Jennie: Yeah, I think it's really important to talk about what is happening outside of clinics because the anti-abortion folks just try to always portray it and the media often repeats like it's the little old lady praying on the sidewalk with her rosary and, like, I remember that being the narrative when buffer zones were in front of the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, they have their giant buffer zone which is, like, a whole other thing but I just remember that being the narrative that is like continually pushed, that it's just these little people doing sidewalk counseling and just, you know, trying to convince people sweetly of their decisions. And that is not what is actually happening.
Erin: No, not even close. We're talking firebombs, death threats on the extreme end of the spectrum. You're also talking about, I've seen this firsthand, you know, sometimes clinics will physically build walls, and they'll just build scaffolding and stand on top of the walls and then use their megaphone to scream in, screaming, terrorizing entire communities. You know, you see things, groups like Operation Save America will have what they call "national events," where they basically bring in people from around the country to siege, not just all the clinics in a community, but the entire community. And I remember one year when I was in North Carolina engaged in clinic defense with this, a mom came up to us and she's like, 'I'm not even pro-choice, but I organized a petition against these guys because I was tired of seeing their ugly banners at Walmart. I didn't want my kids to see that.' So, I mean, the point is they are extremely aggressive, blockading access to these clinics, shouting people down. Another memory that I have from clinic escorting. This was outside a clinic where they were literally spraying ketchup on the snow to try to make it look like blood, screaming out all of these epithets. They would target; they seemed to especially target the people of color. They were screaming at men with their partners, you know, man up, stop her. And I remember one woman, it was raining at the time and, you know, we had the umbrella up and she looks at me and she's like, are they here for me? I mean, she was just incredulous, as she should have been, that there was this entire spectacle with people shouting epithets and acting just violent and crazy over her own private business. So, it's- the narrative that is portrayed, that is false. That is not what's happening. And that is not what the FACE Act addresses. The FACE Act is directly about people using physical force or the threat of physical force or physical obstruction to intentionally injure or block people from accessing care.
Jennie: I can't imagine trying to go and access healthcare and have somebody yelling at me about my choices. That is just a wild thing to accept as normal or should be allowed to happen.
Erin: Correct. And it is the face of the anti-abortion cause. And it's also one of the worst faces of the anti-abortion cause because people don't like this. As I said, I've had people come up to me before and say, I'm not even pro-choice and I hate this, and I want to stop this. So, it's significant. And what we've also seen is that, you know, now that abortion care... this is one of the reasons, by the way, Jennie, that medication abortion drives abortion opponents crazy because they can't control it. What are they supposed to do? Go inside every single person's medicine cabinet and stage a protest outside their house? Scale-wise, it doesn't work out. So, we've also seen these same sorts of tactics. In some cases, they'll extend it forward to the pharmacies. And they're like, I've seen this before, where the organized groups that do the clinic blockades are like, okay, we're going to go target this particular pharmacy. Nobody wants that when they're going to buy their Band-Aids and Rolaids. Get out of there, guys. Right?
Jennie: Yeah. So, you just harass everybody going in? Because like, what are you doing?
Erin: Right, right. It's just pure hate.
Jennie: You know, I think one of the things that I've also been just thinking about is, what we are seeing with the FACE Act in place is still really bad and that we still clearly need the FACE Act. But thinking through, like, if they actually do manage to repeal it, it is going to continue to embolden these anti-abortion activists who have already been emboldened by being able to overturn Roe. And it's scary to think about what that future could look like.
Erin: Oh, it's horrifying. And we're already in an environment where vigilante violence is being encouraged on a variety of levels: anti-abortion, anti-democracy. You know, I need to, in good conscience and actually as a person who grew up in Minnesota and is still psychically and emotionally-
Jennie: Was just thinking about it.
Erin: -identifies as a Minnesotan, even if I don't live there anymore. You know, we saw political assassinations happen there from an anti-abortion zealot, who had a hit list of a number of pro-reproductive freedom legislators and advocates. And if you go and look, I mean, that's the broader connection that we need to draw. A lot of times people will say like, oh yeah, it's just these lone wolves who are out there doing this. And it's like, no. What we actually have and saw in Minnesota, for example, there were many, many different state legislators who made extremely violent comments about their colleagues in attributing, you know, making extremely false statements, inflammatory statements about abortion. You had the Minnesota Right to Life chapter putting out videos of pro-reproductive freedom state lawmakers that literally had target crosshairs over their faces while they were yelling at them, right? So, it's real bad out there. I mean, and it's being encouraged on so many levels. So, it is something we should all be frightened about.
Jennie: Yeah, I feel like that's something that has driven some of the internal conversations, even just like with the work we do. Like, yes, I am not at a clinic, but, you know, I have a podcast where I talk about these things and like starting to think through things that we need to do to ensure our staff is safe. And it's so wild to be in that place where those are the conversations we need to have. And I feel like the last couple of years; those conversations have really ramped up in our office.
Erin: And they need to. And, you know, it's critical that we need to assure the safety of people. And unfortunately, we are not in safe times. And that is not just for those in the reproductive health rights and justice community. I mean, we're literally in a scenario where activists are getting plucked off the street by masked agents and sent to other countries with no due process.
Jennie: Yeah. It's important to remember all of these connections because they are all related and like... [shudders]
Erin: Yikes.
Jennie: Yeah. It is just so much happening right now and so many threads and things to keep track of. It's hard to not feel overwhelmed and also remembering that that part is what they are looking for. They are trying to overwhelm us so that we are not taking action.
Erin: Correct. And to come at this from another way, because that's absolutely correct. Authoritarianism is designed to overwhelm. The anti-abortion cause has long bombarded with every single piece of spaghetti they can get to stick to the wall. When we are talking about anti-abortion violence, people need to understand that it is broadly unpopular, not just with reproductive health rights and justice supporters. It is broadly unpopular with the middle. It is unpopular with the anti-abortion base with a notable part of this. So, on another hand, this does seem like a very stupid fight that they've chosen to pick because anti-abortion violence is like their worst face forward. And they've decided to make that their face forward by promoting violence from the top, from the White House, from the Congress. So, I do think this is an opportunity for us to really go on offense and demand safe, respectful access to health care.
Jennie: I really like that idea of turning it on its head. Like, this is, like, beyond the bare minimum to ask for to keep the FACE Act in place and to enforce this already proposed. That feels like the bare minimum of what we should be expecting. And you're right. People do not like to see those kinds of violence. And I think along that line is. It's hard to get some of that day to day because it is so often happening for it to get the attention so that the general public is less aware of some of that violence that is happening unless it's in their specific community and they are actually seeing it. Otherwise, I think a lot of people are not as familiar that it is, like, still happening at the level it's happening.
Erin: It is happening. And there is, again, like Trump and the Department of Justice appear to be declaring open season on abortion providers. But I also want to say this, that the abortion care community, the people who provide abortion care, put tremendous thought, effort, intention, resources, smarts, and security into ensuring that patients are able to receive health care when they need it, where they need it in their communities. So, the point of this is not to scare people and say, if you need an abortion, you better go hide. You can go. But we need to be aware that this is something where we do need laws to offer these protections. And we do need those laws to be enforced. And we do need to demand that accountability from our legislators. But it is safe to go get an abortion. Someone should feel safe, safe and supported going to get it. There are so many cool people in the abortion care community who just do amazing things. And, you know, there's both visible security and a lot of security that's been put into place that's not visible. And I know so many in this community put real effort and intention to still make places feel warm, supportive, like the places people can go to get the important care they need.
Jennie: That's such an important point. Thank you for pulling that forward.
Erin: Yeah, I just didn't want to be like, and it's all bad and don't go because that's not that's not the case. Abortion providers are amazing individuals who are doing the work to make it safe and comfortable. And the government has a number of bad actors right now that need accountability.
Jennie: Okay, so I guess I'm starting to think of, like, what are next steps? Like, what are some of the next things we should be thinking about, or we should be trying to do?
Erin: That's a great question. So, there are so many ways that people can engage in helping to support access to safe abortion care. And so first of all, on the most local level of all, there are often clinic escort groups that people can get involved in. And this can be both. I've done it before. It can be really fun and affirming, but it's a great way to provide direct support and practical support to people if they may be facing, you know, people who are shouting at them, because what you can do is you can actually walk with someone, accompany them. You can help block someone who's trying to interfere with them, so they don't have to listen. 'You can look at me and you can listen to me. You don't have to listen to them.' So that's a practical thing that people can do. Another thing, absolutely, contact your member of Congress and let them know how you feel about this and tell them to get loud. Tell them to get loud. So, the last thing that I'll say is, yes, we know both from the pardons of the FACE Act violators, the pardons of the January Sixers, the fact that Trump encouraged January Six, the fact that he encourages violence, that he has no problem with this. But I will say this, this is a very anti-abortion president, but he doesn't want to be seen as anti-abortion. And so there actually is a leverage point there. I'm not saying that he's someone that can be counted on, far from it. But I am saying putting pressure on him about being an anti-abortion leader is not the publicity he wants. So, I think it behooves us to talk about this a lot.
Jennie: Yeah. He doesn't want to be seen as the bad guy in some of these areas, right? It does make a difference. And I think it's made a difference already in some of the things that maybe we expected to happen that haven't happened. But again, not saying hope and there's good things, but... less bad is still good at the moment.
Erin: Oh, absolutely. And we have seen how he has done so many things this term without hesitation. And so, it's actually rather remarkable that a number of things on the anti-abortion wish list have not happened. And that, I think, speaks to the fear that exists at the top of the White House. I don't think it exists elsewhere in the administration. In fact, he's brought in a number of anti-abortion people within the administration, so we need to be worried about that. But at the top, he does not want to be seen as the person who's bringing down the hammer.
Jennie: Yeah, Erin, thank you so much. I love hearing ideas to get involved locally, being a clinic escort. There are always great ways to engage in your local community because that is where the fight is happening right now.
Erin: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for having me, Jennie.
Jennie: Okay, y'all. Thank you for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Erin so that you are now all up to date on what is happening around the FACE Act. And with that, I will see everybody next week.
Jennie: Hey rePROs, if you're craving more reproductive justice podcasts to geek out on, and you're curious how abortion and reproductive health play out beyond the U.S., then let me introduce you to Aborsh. Aborsh, like a cute abortion, is a Canadian podcast that explores what choice really means and looks like and why that answer is different for different people. Now in its second season, host Rachel Cairns talks to people who've had abortions at all different stages of pregnancy and phases of life, connecting their stories to the bigger picture. Yeah, it's a lot, but somehow Aborsh makes space for all of it. It's that rare show that doesn't just point out the problems. It reminds us that collectively we have power and that change is possible. Plus, it's smart, candid, and even funny. Because sometimes we need to laugh while riding the hot mess express that is society right now. So, if you want to feel informed, inspired, and a little less alone, check out Aborsh wherever you're listening right now.
Follow Reproaction on X and on Facebook and stay up-to-date with their critical work.
Get involved in clinic escort groups! Walk a patient to the doors of the clinic and prevent protestors from interacting with them.
Contact your member of Congress and let them know how you feel about protecting abortion access. You can contact the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.