Pro-Life Groups File Lawsuit Against NY AG Letitia James Over ‘Political Witch-Hunt’
A lawsuit has been filed against New York Attorney General Letitia James by a group of Christian pro-life pregnancy resource centers and organizations who say that she accused them of false advertising and threatened to sue them.
New York AG Letitia James Challenged Over Her ‘Political Witch-Hunt’ Against Pro-Life Groups https://t.co/jXYhnUIqV5
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Represented by the Thomas More Society, the coalition filed the lawsuit against James on Tuesday. They claim that an April 22 letter she wrote to a dozen pro-life ministries violates the groups’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
In the letter, James accused the groups of “repeated and persistent misleading statements and omissions” in relation to their support of the Abortion Pill Reversal protocol, in which a woman who changes her mind about going through with an abortion takes a prescribed dose of bioidentical progesterone to potentially reverse the effects of mifepristone.
Slamming the attorney general’s aim at them as a politically motivated campaign, the groups pointed out that she also violated the New York state constitution.
As written in the lawsuit, “James’ salvos against Plaintiff’s are the latest development in her politically motivated campaign against pregnancy organizations in general.”
“This time, James targets Plaintiff’s protected speech and activities engaged in for the sole benefit of pregnant women who have ingested — whether voluntarily or via trick or force — mifepristone, the first pill of the two-pill chemical abortion regimen, but wish to continue their pregnancies,” she added.
The lawsuit added that the decision of a pregnant woman to keep her pregnancy has nothing to do with James.
“Defendant James has no business butting into the intimate medical decision of an expectant mother, in consultation with the medical professional of her choice, to carry her pregnancy to term and save her unborn baby from the disastrous effects of mifepristone while there is still time to undo the effects of that powerful chemical,” the groups wrote.
Declaring that their rights are violated by James’ notice, the groups are asking the court to block James from filing a lawsuit against them.
In a statement on the efforts by the group, Thomas More Society Executive Vice President Peter Breen said, “This is a political witch-hunt against small nonprofits that have selflessly served New York’s pregnant women and their children for over 50 years. Letitia James should be heralding these charities, not launching outrageously false claims against them under laws that don’t apply to their noncommercial speech.”
Jor-El Godsey, the president of Heartbeat International, one of the plaintiffs in the case, called James’ step against the groups “unconscionable,” saying, “New York State laws protect abortionists and abortion on demand up until birth. Now they are targeting those who assist a woman in exercising her right to continue her own pregnancy. It is unconscionable to see the abortion industry and its paid-for politicians go so far as to insist she complete an abortion she no longer wants
