US President Donald Trump pardons 23 anti-abortion activists, including some convicted of intimidating reproductive health clinic staff and patients.
The pardon was part of a round of executive orders signed by Trump on Thursday, one of several in the first week of his presidency.
Trump called the convictions “ridiculous,” but the abortion rights campaign said the move was evidence of his opposition to abortion access.
The orders came a day before anti-abortion protesters are due to show up in Washington, D.C., for the annual March for Life, which the president is scheduled to address via Videolink.
In 2020, Trump became the first sitting president to attend Mars in person, although George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan have addressed it remotely.
Vice President J.D. Vance will attend in person this time.
The gathering has been held in the US capital every year since 1974, the year after abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court in Roe v Wade.
Abortion rights have been a major issue in recent presidential races, and the court is overturning the ruling in 2022.
“They shouldn't be on trial. A lot of them are elderly people… This is a wonderful honor to sign this. They'll be very happy,” Trump said of the pardons.
American media reported that one of those pardoned was Loren Handy, leader of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Group (PAAU).
The group was convicted of conspiring in 2020 to break into a Washington Reproductive Health Clinic and block access to patients and staff. The members forced their way to Surgi-Clinic, injured a nurse, and spent several hours inside.
Handy was convicted in August 2023 and sentenced in May 2024.
Her supporters praised the pardon, saying the convictions were political.
Susan B. Anthony Pro Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said protesters were targeting Joe Biden's Justice Department and thanked Trump for “immediately following through on his promise” to pardon them.
But abortion rights activists said the pardon confirmed their belief that Trump was hostile to abortion, despite his declaration during his presidential campaign that it was up to individual states to decide whether to allow the practice.
“Donald Trump has tried on the campaign trail to have it both ways — bragging about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade while saying he won't take action on abortion,” Ryan Stetzlin of the national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom All News told the US Press.
“We never thought this was right, and this shows us that we were right.”
