Attorneys for pardoned abortion clinic protester announce 7-figure settlement with DOJ

Anti-abortion activist Paul Vaughn was convicted in 2024 on a felony charge of conspiring to prevent access to a Mt. Juliet reproductive clinic, then pardoned the following year by President Donald Trump just days after he retook office for a second term.

Last week, attorneys with the Thomas More Society, who represent Vaughn, announced they had reached a seven-figure settlement with the federal government.

“With this settlement, the federal government has now affirmed the Biden DOJ’s and FBI’s actions were an abuse of government power,” a statement by the attorneys said.

The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for details or comment about the settlement.

The settlement has drawn sharp criticism from reproductive rights advocates in Tennessee, who have long contended with anti-abortion groups’ presence outside medical facilities that provided abortion and other reproductive health care.  

Tennessee’s near-total abortion ban took effect in 2022. Vaughn’s conviction stemmed from his actions outside the Carafem Health Center in Mt. Juliet in 2021, where he and fellow protesters engaged in a blockade of the building, according to the Department of Justice. 

Vaughn’s conviction was later upheld on appeal.

“More than a million dollars from this government to reward a man who broke federal law harassing patients, health care workers and volunteers,” Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, said in a statement.

“The administration is rewarding the very people who are willing to use violence to advance their agenda. Regardless of your views on abortion, we should all condemn this in the strongest possible terms,” the statement said.