By CHRISTINE FERNANDO, Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Thursday he would pardon anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances.

Trump called it “a great honor to sign this.”

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“They should not have been prosecuted,” he said as he signed pardons for “peaceful pro-life protesters.”

Among the people pardoned were those involved in the October 2020 invasion and blockade of a Washington clinic.

In the first week of Trump’s presidency, anti-abortion advocates have ramped up calls for Trump to pardon protesters charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which is designed to protect abortion clinics from obstruction and threats. The 1994 law was passed during a time where clinic protests and blockades were on the rise, as well as violence against abortion providers, such as the murder of Dr. David Gunn in 1993.