‘A great honor’: Trump’s pardon spree now includes abortion clinic protesters

President Donald Trump on Thursday said it was his “great honor” to sign an executive order pardoning protesters of abortion clinics nationwide, including some currently serving federal sentences, according to media reports.

The latest executive order – part of a dizzying first three days of presidential directives under the new MAGA administration – includes pardons for close to two dozen individuals convicted of obstructing access to abortion clinics and temporarily shutting down some facilities, Politico reported.

“They should not have been prosecuted,” Trump said, as reported by Politico. “Many of them are elderly people. This is a great honor to sign this.”

The move comes as Trump spent his first few hours as president issuing blanket pardons for over 1,500 convicted Jan. 6 attackers. As with the Capitol rioters, Trump described the group of protesters he pardoned Thursday as “peaceful.”

“Yet many of them were charged with barricading the doors of clinics with bicycle locks and other implements, pushing and in some cases injuring clinic workers, and preventing patients from accessing health services,” Politico noted.

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Among the pardoned include Bevelyn Williams of Tennessee, who was sentenced to 41 months in prison over claims of “interference, including by threats and force, with individuals seeking to obtain and provide lawful reproductive health services,” the publication reported.

It added that Williams “according to the DOJ, crushed a clinic staff member’s hand in a door while attempting to block access to a New York City facility in 2020.”

“Several anti-abortion groups, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Students for Life, the Thomas More Society and Americans United for Life, lobbied Trump to issue the pardons — in open letters and social media posts as well as through private channels,” Politico said. “Many of those groups praised Trump after the pardons were announced on Thursday, but stressed that they will keep pressure on him to deliver for them on several other policy fronts.”

The pardons come as Trump is set to deliver a video speech Friday before the annual anti-abortion March for Life.