Pro-abortion New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) filed a lawsuit against a pro-life organization over its members allegedly blocking access to abortion clinics.
The lawsuit was reportedly filed in federal court for the Southern District of New York against the pro-life group Red Rose Rescue and several individual activists. The lawsuit aims to prevent these pro-life supporters from coming within 30 feet of an 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,” James claimed in the lawsuit. “The OAG seeks to enjoin Defendants, as well as all those acting in concert with them, from physically obstructing anyone attempting to access or provide reproductive health services in New York and from knowingly approaching within thirty feet of any reproductive health care facility in the state.”
According to Reuters, the members of the organization stand near abortion clinics and hand roses to women entering the clinic to urge them not to go through with an abortion procedure and “refusing to leave until forcibly removed.”
"Since James is committed to the legalized killing of the innocent, she is using Red Rose Rescue as an excuse to squash pro-life speech and activity with which she personally disagrees," Red Rose Rescue’s leader Monica Migliorino Miller told the outlet in an email. She described the group's members as "quiet, loving and completely peaceful."
In a statement, James called the pro-lifers an “extremist group” and claimed that their actions have caused several abortion patients to have their appointments delayed or missed entirely.
"Red Rose Rescue has made it their mission to terrorize reproductive health care providers and the patients they serve," James said in the statement. "Only we have the right to make decisions about our own bodies - not anti-choice legislators, and not bigoted zealots. We will not allow Red Rose Rescue to harass and harangue New Yorkers with their outrageous militant tactics. Make no mistake: abortion is health care, and as New York’s Attorney General, I will continue to protect and defend everyone’s legal right to safely access health care.”
According to ABC News, Red Rose Rescue began in 2017 and operates in New York, Michigan, and New Mexico. All three states have lenient laws on abortion access.
Dipal Shah, chief external affairs officer for Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, told ABC that Red Rose Rescue’s tactics are “disruptive,” “psychologically destabilizing” and “incredibly harmful.”
Red Rose Rescue’s website state that it “[goes] into the dark holes of the poor where the innocent are rejected—and in these dark holes we seek to bring love, hope, and true peace to the women scheduled for abortions, encouraging them to choose life.”