WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump signed pardons for 23 anti-abortion protesters on Thursday, the White House said, including a set of people convicted of blockading a clinic entrance.
The people had been tried for conspiring in 2020 to overrun a Washington reproductive health clinic and setting up a blockade to intimidate patients and staff.
Officials said they discovered five fetuses in the home of one of the demonstrators, Lauren Handy, after her indictment.
“They should not have been prosecuted,” said Trump, citing the age of some of those convicted. “This is a great honor to sign this. They’ll be very happy.”
The pardons came a day before anti-abortion protesters were due to descend on Washington for the annual “March for Life.”
Abortion rights featured prominently in the 2024 presidential campaign after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision in 2022 and ended a nearly 50-year federal right to the procedure.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Diane Craft)
