By Dave Andrusko
Chalk one up for freedom of speech. And a defeat for a bully.
This past Monday U.S. District Court Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr. issued a preliminary injunction blocking New York Attorney General Letita James from silencing the constitutionally protected speech of Summit Life Outreach Center and the Evergreen Association while their lawsuit moves forward.
James has long been a thorn in the side of pro-life organizations using her powers as attorney general to harass them unmercifully.
The lawsuit brought by the Thomas More Society argued “that James’ targeting of pregnancy help organizations with threats and prosecution unconstitutionally chills their speech about the safety and efficacy of Abortion Pill Reversal,” according to National Review Online’s Brittany Bernstein. “James filed lawsuits against eleven pregnancy resource centers in May, accusing the centers of giving ‘false and misleading statements to advertise an unproven treatment they call ‘abortion pill reversal [APR].’”
The preliminary injunction order “mirrors one issued by the district court in a related case, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. James,” according to the Thomas More Society. “The court order protects Summit and Evergreen in their sharing of information about Abortion Pill Reversal—a protocol that can reverse the effects of the first abortion pill if a woman changes her mind. In a separate but related New York state court case, Thomas More Society is representing Heartbeat International and a collective of New York pro-life pregnancy help organizations that have been sued by James for promoting Abortion Pill Reversal.”
Peter Breen, Thomas More Society Executive Vice President & Head of Litigation, said, “This injunction marks a critical victory for New York’s pregnancy help organizations and another blow to Letitia James’ unconstitutional witch-hunt against pro-life ministries.” Breen added, “This court order makes clear Ms. James cannot censor pro-life speech purely because she dislikes it. We are hopeful that this injunction will buttress our case in New York state court, where we proudly continue to defend the host of pregnancy help organizations unjustly targeted and sued by Ms. James as part of her unconstitutional campaign to silence pro-life ministries. These pro-life ministries have a constitutional right to share information about Abortion Pill Reversal, and their message is saving thousands of lives.”