Army’s Apology for Calling Pro-Life American’s Terrorists is a Huge Victory

Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll released a full apology last week for a U.S. Army training presentation that equated pro-life organizations with terrorist groups, publicized on social media in 2024. “While I cannot undo the harm that this training caused, I want to offer my sincerest apology to Operation Rescue, National Right to Life, and all pro-life groups negatively impacted by the false characterization of all pro-life organizations made by this training,” wrote Driscoll.

The incident hit the headlines in July 2024, when Army personnel at Fort Liberty, N.C. received a counter-terrorism briefing that listed mainstream pro-life groups such as National Right to Life and Operation Rescue as well as a “Choose Life” license plate as examples of “Terrorist Groups,” right alongside violent organizations like the Islamic State and the Ku Klux Klan.

The Biden administration quickly retreated once this slide was made public. “After conducting a commander’s inquiry, we determined that these slides were not vetted by the appropriate approval authorities, and do not reflect the views of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Liberty, the U.S. Army or the Department of Defense,” the Fort Liberty Public Affairs Office stated in a July 11 statement. “The slides were developed by a local garrison employee to train soldiers manning access control points at Fort Liberty. These slides will no longer be used, and all future training products will be reviewed to ensure they align with the current DoD [Department of Defense] anti-terrorism guidance.”

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But many members of Congress were not satisfied. On July 12, 2024, 87 members of Congress wrote to then-Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth demanding answers. “Smearing Pro-Life Americans is despicable and emblematic of the ongoing politicization of the military under the Biden-Harris Administration,” they declared.

In fact, documents which the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) secured through the Freedom of Information Act suggested that the slide characterizing pro-life organizations as terrorists was not a one-off error by a local base employee. According to the ACLJ, military trainings have characterized pro-life groups as terrorists since 2011.

As a result, the ACLJ penned a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of the Army Driscoll on April 24, 2025, requesting “swift and decisive action to remedy this shocking and disappointing injustice to pro-life Americans at the hands of the U.S. Army under its prior leadership.”

Driscoll replied that he was “troubled to learn” about the mischaracterization, which “was not only inaccurate but also deeply inappropriate,” he said. “Equally concerning was the previous Administration’s inadequate response to this serious incident. Its failure to provide full transparency or take responsibility for such a grievous error is wholly unacceptable.”

“Let me be clear, the Army does not consider Operation Rescue, National Right to Life, and other pro-life groups to be terrorist organizations,” Driscoll continued. “Further, the Army does not view pro-life beliefs or state-issued pro-life license plates as indicators of terrorism.”

Driscoll’s apology steers the military further away from the spirit of cultural crusade that tanked its recruiting numbers during the Biden administration. “It is no wonder that the Army is struggling to recruit young men and women to join its ranks when it appears the service attacks their values and promotes a woke agenda rather than improving readiness and lethality,” the 87 legislators wrote in 2024. This year, U.S. Army recruitment has already come roaring back, meeting its fiscal year 2025 goal by the end of May, four months ahead of schedule.

Driscoll’s declaration also stands a greater chance of lasting longer than the typical executive pronouncement. Those who follow the ins and outs of Washington are used to witnessing the unending ping-pong match of executive actions, where a Democratic administration changes policy, then a Republican administration reverses it. But military service branches are institutions in their own right with some insulation against shifting political winds.

The next time some political activist in the military proposes to classify conservative lobby groups as domestic terrorists, the ready response is that the military already tried that, had to apologize, and is not eager to repeat the embarrassing blunder. By extending the Biden administration’s half-hearted retreat into a full-fledged apology, Driscoll has effectively shamed the Army out of committing the same mistake again.

LifeNews Note: Joshua Arnold is a staff writer at The Washington Stand, contributing both news and commentary from a biblical worldview. Originally published by The Washington Stand.

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