A new report alleges that the Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden collaborated with abortion advocacy organizations to monitor pro-life activists, with information gathered by those groups later used in criminal prosecutions, as reported by the Independent Journal Review.

According to the report, the DOJ’s National Task Force on Violence Against Reproductive Health Care Providers “affirmatively asked the abortion groups about pro-life individuals’ travel and constitutionally protected advocacy.”

The findings are part of a broader review examining the enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act during the Biden administration.

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The report states that Sanjay Patel, a former Civil Rights Division trial attorney who served as director of the task force, maintained regular communication with several abortion advocacy organizations.

Patel “was on texting terms with the National Abortion Federation’s (NAF) Security Team and regularly communicated with Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF),” according to the report.

It further claims that these organizations provided detailed information about pro-life activists, including what were described as “security reports” and “dossiers.”

The report states, “During the investigations of the later pardoned cases, the NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] sent DOJ ‘security reports’ or ‘dossiers’ on the activities of the pro-life activists and their personal information.”

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One example cited in the report involved a 2021 pro-life conference.

According to the findings, “in 2021, before an annual conference by a pro-life group, one pro-choice NGO sent the Task Force Director and the FBI a 137-page memorandum on the conference schedule, lodging, and multi-page dossiers on numerous ‘anti-choice individuals,’ including many of the pardoned defendants.”

The report also raises questions about Patel’s interactions with the National Abortion Federation beyond investigative matters.

It states that Patel agreed to serve as a reference for the organization’s application for a private grant.

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A supervisor reportedly advised him to seek ethics approval, but “the DOJ’s review of all custodian emails did not reveal any email where Patel contacted his ethics officer on this matter or retracted his offer to NAF.”

The findings contrast those interactions with what the report describes as “limited” engagement between the DOJ and pro-life organizations, particularly during a period of heightened tensions following the leak of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022.

That leak was followed by attacks on pregnancy resource centers, according to the report, which states that only three prosecutions were pursued against abortion-rights activists.

The report also details sentencing disparities in FACE Act cases, stating that prosecutors under the Biden administration sought longer sentences for pro-life defendants.

It found that the DOJ requested an average sentence of 26.8 months for pro-life defendants compared to 12.3 months for pro-choice defendants.

In January 2025, Donald Trump issued pardons for 23 pro-life activists who had been prosecuted during the Biden administration.

The report’s findings are expected to add to ongoing debate over how federal authorities enforced the FACE Act and interacted with outside organizations during that period.

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