New York AG hits anti-abortion group with lawsuit for blocking access to health care clinics

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) filed a lawsuit Thursday against an anti-abortion group, Red Rose Rescue, alleging its members have repeatedly blocked entrances to health clinics and have “made it their mission to terrorize reproductive health care providers and the patients they serve.”

“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,” James said in a press release announcing the lawsuit. “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.”

James is seeking to prohibit any member of the Red Rose Rescue group to come within 30 feet of a reproductive health care facility in New York state. She is also seeking civil penalties and damages. 

In the lawsuit, James claimed members of the Red Rose Rescue group have been arrested and convicted numerous times, some even currently serving sentences, yet they have publicly stated that they do not intend to stop their “Red Rose Rescue” missions.

“Criminal trespass at reproductive health facilities is not incidental to Red Rose Rescue members’ activism, but rather is the core mission of their group. As they explain in their Mission Statement, ’During a Red Rose Rescue, a team of pro-lifers enter the actual places’ where abortions are performed and ‘will not leave’ but ‘must be taken away,’” James wrote in the lawsuit.

James named three clinics in particular — two in Nassau County and one in Westchester County — at which members of the anti-abortion group have “invaded” the clinic or prevented patients from accessing care in some other way. 

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, praised the Attorney General for taking this step.

“Under Federal and New York State law, anti-abortion extremists are forbidden from blocking patients’ access to reproductive care. I applaud [James] taking action to stop Red Rose Rescue’s hateful, disruptive, and criminal misconduct and defend the right to abortion care,” he wrote.