A judge in New York has ruled that a pro-life group can engage in sidewalk counseling within 15 feet of abortion clinics and not be in violation of an earlier court order.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas ruled from the bench on Monday that Red Rose Rescue could protest or offer counseling in close proximity to abortion clinics, rejecting a previous request by New York Attorney General Letitia James to ban the pro-life group’s activities.
The Thomas More Society, which is helping to represent Red Rose Rescue, released a statement Wednesday celebrating the bench ruling that allows the pro-life group to demonstrate.
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“We are very pleased with the court’s thorough and well-reasoned opinion, denying Letitia James’ attempt to further silence our pro-life clients,” stated Thomas More Society’s Senior Counsel Christopher Ferrara.
“The evidence we provided in defense of Red Rose Rescue clearly demonstrated that that there was no violation of the injunction, including the bodycam footage showing that every claim of misconduct made by the AG’s two partisan witnesses was demonstrably false,” he added.
James had filed a lawsuit against Red Rose Rescue in June 2023 in an attempt to ban members of the pro-life group from coming within 30 feet of any abortion clinic.
“Defendants have been arrested multiple times for their unlawful acts, but despite multiple convictions across the country and within New York state, they continue to repeat their criminal misconduct,” the lawsuit claimed.
“Red Rose Rescue is an anti-abortion group whose members conspire to illegally trespass into private medical facilities that perform abortions and shut down or physically obstruct the provision of all reproductive health services, refusing all requests to leave by staff and law enforcement.”
The suit also alleged that “other anti-abortion groups have distanced themselves from Red Rose Rescue and have characterized the latter’s conduct as ‘haranguing,’ ‘aggressive’ and ‘intimidating.'”
In December 2023, the state attorney general got a court order barring Red Rose Rescue from coming within 15 feet of abortion facilities in the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York.
Last August, James asked the court to hold the pro-life group in contempt, claiming that it had harassed women outside a Planned Parenthood in Manhattan, thus violating the court order.
The Thomas More Society intervened on behalf of Red Rose Rescue, successfully arguing that the pro-life activists were engaging in constitutionally protected activities while near the abortion clinic.
Recently, there has been considerable debate over the extent to which pro-life activists can protest at abortion clinics, with some jurisdictions enacting “buffer zones” that bar such demonstrations within a certain distance of a facility’s entrance.
Supporters of such zones have argued that they are necessary to protect access to abortion, while critics charge that they violate constitutionally-protected rights.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a legal challenge to a buffer zone law implemented by Carbondale, Illinois, that prohibited protests within 100 feet of abortion clinics.
