How the Biden Administration collaborated with pro-abortion activists in operations aimed at imprisoning members of pro-life groups

A report from the Department of Justice (DOJ) of nearly 900 pages, based on more than 700,000 internal records and released Tuesday by the Trump Administration, notes that the administration under Joe Biden used information provided by pro-abortion groups to track, prosecute and surveil pro-life activists.

Emails cited by The Daily Wire show that pro-abortion organizations provided Biden's DOJ with "dossiers" containing personal information and photographs of pro-life activists, many of whom were subsequently arrested by the FBI.

These files included data on individuals who were not yet facing federal charges, but who were considered threats because of their activism. Under the Biden Administration, many of these anti-abortion protesters were prosecuted for peaceful protests consisting of what they described as praying, chanting and sitting outside abortion clinic doors.

Several received prison sentences for years, and others awaited sentencing until President Donald Trump pardoned them during his first week in office.

Selective use of the FACE Act and coordination with pro-abortion groups

The report documents how the Biden Administration "weaponized" the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act), passed in 1994 to protect access to places of worship, religious institutions, abortion clinics and pregnancy support centers, by applying it against anti-abortion protesters.

The DOJ attributes this strategy to Biden's decision to reactivate the National Task Force on Violence Against Reproductive Care Providers after taking office. The group operated out of the Civil Rights Division under the direction of Sanjay Patel, who was reportedly ousted on Monday.

In a November 2021 exchange, Patel put an FBI agent in touch with Michelle Davidson, director of security for the National Abortion Federation (NAF).

"The Task Force Director was in regular, ongoing contact with pro-abortion non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the clinics they represented, but disregarded pro-life groups," the DOJ wrote Tuesday. "Pro-abortion groups capitalized on their relationship with the Task Force to gain internal information and push targets for FACE Act enforcement."

The DOJ said Patel maintained frequent communication with the NAF, Planned Parenthood and the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Internal files and activist reports point to years of pro-life monitoring

One prominent case is that of Calvin Zastrow, an evangelical Christian from Michigan who travels the country with his family doing evangelism and pro-life activism. The emails show that Zastrow and members of his family were flagged to the DOJ years before they were indicted. Patel even asked for information about their travel, such as a trip to Montana in September 2021.

"Do you have any info on Zastrow and Co’s travel to Montana?" asked Patel to Davidson that same month.

His daughter, Eva Zastrow, appeared in a 136-page dossier compiled by the DOJ on attendees at an Operation Save America conference. The document described the entire family as involved in "anti-choice" activities and associated with other activists who were later prosecuted, including personal details such as date of birth, email, phone, addresses and physical description.

"The entire Zastrow family is engaged in anti-choice activities and sometimes refer to themselves as the ‘Zastrow Holiness Revival Team.’ Several members of the Zastrow family, including Eva, have been arrested at reproductive health care facilities in the past," the entry about the young woman said.

Eva Zastrow was prosecuted and convicted in 2024 of violating the FACE Act for her involvement in alleged blockades outside abortion clinics inTennessee and Michigan, along with her father Calvin and brother James. The federal indictment against the 11-person group, including the Zastrow family, was filed in October 2022 over the Tennessee incident, where the prosecution alleged that the activists traveled for the purpose of blocking access to the clinic.

The lawyer for Eva Edl, one of the defendants, stressed that the group was there solely "to pray, sing and worship," with the aim of persuading women attending the clinic not to go ahead with the abortion.

Another dossier included in evidence for the report was compiled by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Global Safety and Security Intelligence and Investigations on Operation Save America. The dossier included photos of multiple individuals subsequently pardoned by Trump.

The report also highlights that, while pro-lifers were being persecuted with the help of abortion groups, the Task Force spent little time investigating attacks on crisis pregnancy centers, especially after the leak of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade in May 2022.

Close collaboration between DOJ and pro-abortion activists

At the same time, Biden DOJ officials maintained a close relationship with abortion activists and agreed to assist them in grant applications. In an October 2023 email, official Paige Fitzgerald described the relationship with the NAF as a "decades"-long collaboration characterized by a "one-way street" flow of information in which the organization was "respectful, cooperative, and frequently quite helpful."

"We have worked with NAF for decades. NAF regularly refers potential FACE Act violations and other threats to RHCPs, helps us liaise with clinics and staff, lets us know about upcoming events that might result in security concerns so we can notify FBI and USMS, etc. Because they are NGOs, they can poke around on the internet in ways we can’t, and they have shared leads with us, etc."