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Thursday, September 21, 2017

New York Attorney General Trying to Deny Pro-Life People Free Speech Outside Abortion Clinics


By Tom Ciesielka
Life News


The Thomas More Society attorneys are defending a group of peaceful pro-life advocates from Queens against New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman in a federal lawsuit that accuses them of threats and violence against abortion clinic patients. Last week the Thomas More Society filed a motion to dismiss the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit. The motion argues that the lawsuit is without merit because it is actually an assault on the First Amendment rights of pro-life sidewalk counselors
According to Thomas More Society General Counsel Andrew Bath, “Most of these pro-life advocates are members of the Church at the Rock in Queens,” he stated. 
“As life-affirming Christians, they peacefully counsel women who are considering having an abortion. They conduct themselves reasonably and compassionately and offer information about abortion alternatives to those willing to listen.”
Schneiderman’s lawsuit, filed in June, was reputed to seek an end to what he charged is “a weekly pattern of threatening, obstructive and violent activity by a network of anti-abortion protesters at Choices Women’s Medical Center in Jamaica, New York.”

Of the fourteen pro-life counselors that Schneiderman has singled out, ten attend Church at the Rock. The congregation has been witnessing for life outside of the abortion facility weekly since 2012. In June 2016, Schneiderman initiated a yearlong investigation, claiming to have received “complaints of the protesters’ extremely aggressive behavior.” 

He called the church members efforts to offer support and alternatives to women considering abortion and to advocate for the rights of the unborn, “horrifying” and “illegal.” However, in five years, there have been no arrests and not a single citation.

Martin Cannon, Thomas More Society Special Counsel, explained that the accusations in Schneiderman’s lawsuit are unfounded, provide no particulars, and are composed of random claims that site no dates, times or circumstances. 

“The AG’s alleged pattern of violence and vitriol on the part of these peaceful pro-life advocates is without basis. In fact, Schneiderman’s unwavering allegiance to abortion rights may have colored his judgment in this case, as there is not one documented and verified instance of the force, threat of force, physical obstruction, or following and harassing, of which he has accused our clients.”
Life News continues 

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