On Friday, pro-lifers were met with the news that President Donald Trump fulfilled his promise of pardoning the 23 pro-life advocates who were prosecuted by the Biden-Harris administration. The president said it was “a great honor” to grant the pardons, and his decision has been celebrated by many. However, as many have pointed out, the Federal Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act is what was used to put those pro-lifers in jail, “a move legal experts said is unprecedented.”

When Trump signed the pardons, he noted that the pro-lifers never should have been prosecuted in the first place. In fact, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduced a bill a couple years ago that sought to repeal the FACE Act in light of its misuse. Although it did not gain proper momentum the first time around, Roy reintroduced the legislation on Tuesday. “Americans just spent the last four years being targeted by a weaponized justice system,” the congressman said in a press release. “The FACE Act was one of the primary weapons of abuse — being used to politically target, arrest, and jail pro-life Americans for speaking out and standing up for life.”

Roy joined Friday’s “Washington Watch” to talk more about this legislation to repeal the FACE Act with guest host Jody Hice. “That law should not be there to be abused against pro-lifers,” Roy stated. “Ninety-seven percent of the application of the FACE Act has been against pro-life individuals. And unfortunately, that meant that these [23] individuals who were pardoned … were sitting in jail, and they were sitting in jail because they exercised their free speech and their views on pro-life.” Ultimately, Roy explained how the pardons are “a great victory” both for life and “a pause in weaponized government.” And yet, “we still have more to do to make that permanent.”

“What would that look like?” Hice asked. If the repeal were to be put into effect, “what would it accomplish?” In short, Roy explained how it would stop the government from “using the law as a political sword … a sword against pro-lifers.” When law is weaponized, he argued, it “takes the blindfold off of Lady Justice, and that kills the rule of law.” But repealing the FACE Act, accompanied by Trump’s pardons from Friday, all work together in “restoring the rule of law,” the congressman contended.

Roy went on to emphasize that the FACE Act should be “simply [taken] off the books. That’s it. … We should move it through the Judiciary Committee. We should move it to the floor of the House. We should make this a permanent change so that no future president has to pardon, as President Trump did … individuals who were unfairly politically targeted and charged under the Department of Justice.”

However, Hice pointed out how there is only a slim majority of Republicans in the House. Considering this, “What’s the chances … [between] the House and the Senate … [of] this making it to the president’s desk?” he asked. According to Roy, it will be “difficult,” especially “when you’ve got 60 votes that you need in the Senate. But I would love to pass that out of the House.” It may not go all the way through right now, Roy acknowledged, but at the least he maintained that “no Republican should oppose it.”

“[L]ook,” he continued, “we just passed the Born-Alive [Abortion Survivors Protection] Act with unanimous support among Republicans, and that was a good thing. This is a bill that goes beyond life and goes to the weaponization of the Department of Justice for people exercising their political views and their pro-life views. It should pass unanimously by Republicans. We should send it to the Senate. We should force them to vote on it. And if it doesn’t pass, then at least we know where they stand.”