New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against pro-life protestors standing outside of the Queens Health Clinic that "limits" physical contact with patients going into the Choices Women’s Medical Center.
The lawsuit states that protestors acted violently toward women and escorts, pinning the escorts against a wall, shouting death threats, and calling the women murderers. The lawsuit also states that the protestors attempted to block the center's doors and handed out pictures of “mangled fetuses.”
"Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York" according to the Wall Street Journal, the lawsuit does not limit protestors' right to free speech, Schneiderman said.
Schneiderman's "office is seeking civil penalties and damages" against 14 people who committed these acts, allegedly violating laws, the Wall Street Journal wrote.
If the protestors in New York acted the way Schneiderman claimed, they are harming their cause —one that supports life and the dignity of every human, including the women who seek abortions.
“We are standing up against violence,” Schneiderman said in a twitter video. Pro-life supporters also claim to stand against violence. They shouldn't commit violence and have a responsibility to communicate the opposite message through how they offer help to women considering abortion.
Those activists are supposed to represent a positive alternative. According to Save the Storks, an organization that provides aid and alternative options to women considering abortions, "64 percent of women who chose abortions say they feel pressured by others to abort." Already vulnerable, it’s highly unhelpful—and ineffective—to attack a woman in that position by shouting and showing images of aborted fetuses. Instead, show the alternative, one that is hopeful and loving. Be gentle while others are violent, sensitive when others are unfeeling.
In answer to the lawsuit, Chairwoman of the New York State Right to Life, Barbara Meara, said, “They’re just offering choices to women to let them know there are pregnancy care centers to help them if they decide to have the baby. They’re not there to intimidate or fight with anyone.”
To share a message of hope, pro-life activists must embody the love and life they want women to choose.