Free Republic

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon promised to hold criminals accountable for bombing and vandalizing pro-life pregnancy centers with the same law formerly used to jail pro-lifers. Dhillon’s Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ) aims to bring “numerous” such cases using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, she told The Daily Signal in a Thursday interview. The Biden administration primarily used the FACE Act to prosecute pro-life activists for peacefully protesting at abortion clinics, despite the law also protecting pregnancy resource centers and houses of worship. “While the statute is in place,...

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing First Choice, a faith-based pregnancy center, are asking the Supreme Court to allow it to challenge in federal court an unconstitutional investigation by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin. Platkin served a subpoena demanding that First Choice identify—by name—the donors behind nearly 5,000 donations and produce up to 10 years of its internal, confidential documents. The First Amendment protects donor identities from unjustified disclosure and prohibits a state official from retaliating against speech with which he disagrees. “New...

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, a group of pregnancy resource centers in New Jersey, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider its case about the state asking it to disclose information about its donors. In November 2023, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin demanded that First Choice turn over many documents, including information it provides to clients, statements about abortion pill reversal, documents about personnel and outside organizations with which it works, and donor information. Platkin has openly expressed his hostility toward pregnancy centers. “He issued a consumer alert—drafted with the help of Planned Parenthood—complaining that such centers do...

A Wisconsin man was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in federal prison in April for attempting to damage a building occupied by a pro-life organization on May 8, 2022, because he was upset that Roe v. Wade might be overturned. Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury pled guilty in December 2023 to firebombing the office of CompassCare in Madison, Wisconsin, just days after the draft Supreme Court decision of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked to the press. At about six in the morning on May 8, police responded to a call about a fire in the office building. Inside a...

Three Florida residents pleaded guilty on Friday to charges connected to attacks on pregnancy resource centers, including in Winter Park, between May and July 2022. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Caleb Freestone, Amber Smith-Stewart and Annarella Rivera chose to target pro-life reproductive health facilities that provided patients with resources and counseling on abortion alternatives. Authorities said the defendants vandalized the buildings with threatening messages. Freestone, Smith-Stewart and Rivera pleaded guilty to conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate employees of the targeted pregnancy resource centers. By pleading guilty, the defendants admitted to participating in attacks during nighttime hours, while...

“She is attempting to hide choices from women” New Attorney General Letitia James followed through on her threat to sue Heartbeat International and several pregnancy help organizations in her state to prevent the organizations from advertising the Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) protocol. James is alleging that Heartbeat and 11 New York pregnancy help medical clinics use false and misleading statements to advertise APR, and accuses them of fraud, deceptive business practices, and false advertising, even claiming they are “spreading dangerous misinformation.” James claims incorrectly in the process that the mission of Heartbeat International and the pregnancy help organizations is “to...

A coalition of pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) in the state of New York preemptively filed a lawsuit against the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, on April 30. The lawsuit comes just days after James sent a letter to the centers noting that she would be suing them for “misleading statements” regarding the so-called “abortion pill reversal” protocol. The Thomas More Society is representing the PRCs, including CompassCare and Heartbeat International, in the case Heartbeat, …CompassCare, et al v James. James sent a letter to 10 of the state’s PRCs on April 22, in which she indicated that she would be...

Leaders of the First Unitarian Church of Dallas cut the ribbon Friday on a new pregnancy resource center that aims to provide comprehensive reproductive health information and to act as a foil for crisis pregnancy centers. The Truth Pregnancy Resource Center is a direct reaction to Texas’ strict abortion bans that made the procedure illegal in all cases but those that threaten the life of the mother. Abortion clinics around the state shuttered, limiting access to women’s health care providers in regions already known to be maternal care deserts. Doors down from the now-closed Southwestern Women’s Surgery Center, which offered...

Nearly one year later, Google is still directing those looking for information on “pregnancy” toward the largest abortion mill in the country: Planned Parenthood. MRC Free Speech America researchers analyzed Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo search results for the word “pregnancy” in a “clean environment” one week before the 51st annual national March for Life in Washington, D.C. Bing and DuckDuckGo elevated neutral results with links to popular health websites like Mayo Clinic and Healtline.com, as one might expect. But Google’s first result was a link to Planned Parenthood’s landing page on pregnancy. Planned Parenthood did not show up at all...

An Ohio woman pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge for defacing a pro-life reproductive health clinic earlier this year, with the potential of facing jail time for the act. "Defacing facilities that provide reproductive health services will not be tolerated in our society," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said of the plea. "The Justice Department is committed to enforcing the FACE Act to protect all patients who seek reproductive health services and all persons and facilities that provide such services." Whitney M. Durant, also known as Soren Monroe, admitted to painting the words...

FIRST ON FOX: A pro-life pregnancy center in Orlando, Florida was hit by an attack from vandals who appeared to leave behind a beheaded chicken, another bird, and a young lamb. JMJ Pregnancy Center in Orlando was hit by a vandal attack on Wednesday afternoon between 3:30 and 5 p.m., leaving a wake of mutilated animal bodies in front of the clinic. Fox News Digital exclusively obtained photos of the attack that showed a bloodless, decapitated chicken, a lamb, and what appears to be a pheasant on the lawn of the pregnancy center near the entrance in what the center's...

On January 18, the first indictment of pro-abortion extremists for attacks on Christian pro-life pregnancy centers was made. The pro-abortion extremists and their “known and unknown co-conspirators” indicted allegedly targeted pro-life pregnancy centers in southern Florida consistent with the abortion extremist domestic terror group Jane’s Revenge in violation of the Clinton-era Federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE).Finally, an Indictment of Pro-Abortion TerroristsThe FACE Act was originally written to quell public pro-life speech near abortion clinics and has never been used to indict pro-abortion extremists targeting pro-life medical facilities. In 2022 alone, 26 peaceful pro-life people were indicted...

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — Lynchburg City Council voted to not go forward with a resolution condemning the recent vandalism at the Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center. The center was vandalized last month, following the Supreme Court's Decision Overturning Roe v. Wade. The resolution was proposed by Councilman Chris Faraldi. The motion to approve the resolution failed 2-5. Faraldi said he is disheartened by the vote, and that he saw this as an opportunity for the council to call out evil for what it is. "I truly saw it as an opportunity for the seven of us to join hands, stand together...

LONGMONT, Colo. (KDVR) — Life Choices was vandalized and sustained fire and smoke damage on June 25, and now officials are offering up to $10,000 in reward money. Longmont Public Safety responded to Life Choices at 3:17 a.m. on the morning of June 25 after dispatch received reports of a fire breaking out at the business. The business at 20 Mountain View Ave. had “bans off our bodies” and other vandalism written in black paint on the property. Life Choices does not provide abortions but it does offer post-abortion support, according to its website. In addition to the vandalism, LPS...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The FBI is asking for the public’s help in searching for the suspect, or suspects, who threw an unignited Molotov cocktail into the Hope Clinic for Women, a ‘pro-life organization’, in Nashville nearly a month ago. The FBI released pictures of the believed suspect as they continue to take any leads. The grainy pictures show the suspect wearing a backpack. The car is also a key piece in the investigation. Business owners told News 2 it is concerning the person behind this still hasn’t been caught after the clinic was vandalized on June 30. Around 1:30...

A Colorado Christian crisis center for pregnant women was vandalized and set on fire Saturday morning, a day after the US Supreme Court reversed federal protection of abortions. Police responded to a fire at Life Choices in Longmont around 3:20 a.m., and found the building ablaze with covered with graffiti messages referencing the controversial overturning of Roe v. Wade, officials said. “If abortions aren’t safe neither are you,” one message read, accompanied by the circled “A” anarchy symbol. The saying has been written at dozens of pro-life centers since the court’s intent to overturn the 1973 ruling was leaked in...

A pro-life pregnancy center in Minneapolis, Minnesota was vandalized on Tuesday, and the group Jane's Revenge has claimed responsibility for carrying out the act in an online post. Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life says in a Facebook post that their building was vandalized on Tuesday and posted pictures of graffiti plastered on the building as well as broken windows. "Last night the MCCL office was vandalized, including graffiti and some broken windows. It's the second time we have been targeted in recent weeks. But we are grateful that we are all safe. As the Supreme Court prepares to rule in...

It’s a typical day at the pregnancy center. The first shift has already arrived. The doors are unlocked and the rooms have been prepped when a young woman enters the center. Fear covers her like a thick fog. She works her way to the reception desk, barely able to make eye contact. The sweet volunteer working behind the desk on this particular morning has a warmth that fills the room. She tenderly welcomes the young woman and asks how Prestonwood Pregnancy Center can help her this morning. And so, the young woman’s appointment begins. Volunteers and staff will boldly walk...

NEWPORT, Tenn. — Wendy Ramsey began her day as she often does, in the cool basement of Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church. It was a Thursday, and her first client was coming at noon. She flipped on the fluorescent lights. Racks of infant, toddler and maternity clothes neatly lined the waiting area. Formula and baby food were on the shelf, free for anyone who came. A flier for a local domestic violence shelter was taped to the cinder-block wall, one of its tabs ripped off. A whiteboard in her office listed her prayer requests: for her clients, for their salvation and...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether a California law requiring private facilities that counsel pregnant women against abortion to post signs telling clients how to get state-funded abortions and contraceptives violates free speech rights. The justices will hear an appeal brought by Christian-based non-profit facilities sometimes called “crisis pregnancy centers” of a lower court ruling that upheld the Democratic-backed 2015 California law. The challengers argue that the law, by forcing them to post the information, violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of free speech. The California challengers included the National Institute of Family...