New York AG to charge Red Rose rescuers, calls them ‘bigoted zealots’

The state of New York brought state and federal charges against six Red Rose Rescue activists, requesting punishment and the creation of a 30-foot “buffer zone” around abortion businesses.

Thursday’s lawsuit was filed by Attorney General Letitia James in the Southeastern District Court of New York and names Fr. Fidelis Moscinski, Laura Gies, William Goodman, Matthew Connolly, and John Hinshaw as defendants. James focused on attempts to obstruct operations at All Women’s Care in Manhasset, Nassau County; All Women’s Care in Manhasset, Nassau County; and Planned Parenthood in Hempstead, Nassau County.

Collectively, the group has seen multiple trespassing convictions and jail sentences but Red Rose Rescue activists have generally expressed an interest in continuing to disrupt abortion facility activities despite punishment. 

“Red Rose Rescue has made it their mission to terrorize reproductive health care providers and the patients they serve,” said James. “Only we have the right to make decisions about our own bodies — not anti-choice legislators, and not bigoted zealots.” James is seeking injunctive action through the FACE Act and New York Clinic Access Act, which prohibit acts designed to obstruct clinic use.

The group’s website maintains it engages in peaceful protest and asserts that “[u]njust imprisonment is a spiritual extension of the rescue and an opportunity to continue to witness to the unborn whom Red Rose Rescuers sought to defend. In jail, the Red Rose Rescuers will pray, fast, serve fellow inmates, and offer reparation for the sin of abortion.”

The group says their actions have been successful in preventing the killing of preborn children. 

Lauren Handy, who participates in rescues and was indicted under FACE, responded to the lawsuit on Twitter. “Rescues and ProLife non violent direct action works,” she said on Friday. “Lives are being saved[.] Pregnancy resource orgs tell us people contact them after getting roses[.] This is about money[.] Good luck getting money from a bunch of people who have taken voluntary poverty promises.”

James’ lawsuit seeks relief under the part of the FACE Act that reads: “[T]he court may award appropriate relief, including temporary, preliminary or permanent injunctive relief, compensatory damages, and civil penalties.”

Part of the lawsuit specifically requests a 30-foot buffer zone. It asks the court for action:

permanently enjoining Defendants from violating FACE and the NY Clinic Access Act, and ordering injunctive relief necessary and appropriate to remedy Defendants’ past violations of law and to ensure that Defendants do not create a physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, discourage and/or interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate, discourage and/or interfere with persons who are seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health care in New York, and to create a buffer zone around all reproductive health facilities in the state, extending out thirty feet from the buildings themselves and encompassing all clinic entrances and parking lots, where no protest activity may occur.

The lawsuit comes as Democratic administrations have taken a series of actions designed to shore up abortion access after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs. President Biden’s Justice Department notably brought FACE Act indictments against Handy, Fr. Fidelis, and many others in 2022 and 2023.

The highly controversial federal law has come under intense scrutiny, including from members of Congress. In April, a dozen House Republicans asked Congress to defund its enforcement, arguing that a slew of pro-life activists, including Handy and Fr. Fidelis Moscinski, were wrongly targeted by Biden’s DOJ. It also said that the case against pro-life activist Mark Houck, who was eventually found not guilty, showed the Biden administration couldn’t be trusted to enforce the law. 

“Mark Houck has been found innocent of all charges, but Attorney General Merrick Garland has refused to admit that the overwhelming use of force against an innocent American citizen was a mistake,” the letter read.

“This is far from the only example of the Biden DOJ abusing the FACE Act against American citizens. In 2022, the FACE Act was used more than two dozen times against pro-life activists including Mark Houck, Father Fidelis Moscinski, Lauren Handy, Herb Geraghty, and a Holocaust survivor [Eva Edl]. Prior to this year, the FACE Act had never been used to indict individuals related to an attack on a pro-life pregnancy center or house of worship.”

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