How Defending Pro-Life Speech is Saving the Lives of Unborn Babies
The American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) has a long and proud history of advancing the pro-life cause. The life issue is important to us and rightly so, as all life is a gift from God.
Recently, the ACLJ filed a lawsuit against the City of Fort Myers, Florida, for preventing pro-life sidewalk counselors from communicating with women going into and out of a local abortion clinic.
In that case we represented Judith Minahan and JoAnn O’Connell. For more than a decade, they have regularly engaged in sidewalk counseling outside the Fort Myers Women’s Health Center, an abortion clinic, to counsel women, in a non-confrontational manner, about such things as alternatives to abortion, fetal development, and post-abortion healing.
Last October, a police officer threatened them with enforcement of a loitering ordinance if, while on the public sidewalk, they stood still (even to pray) or if they spoke with, or handed literature to, those who wanted to receive their information. In effect, their sidewalk counseling efforts were shut down.
We filed a motion for a preliminary injunction requesting that the trial court prevent the City and police from continuing to violate our clients’ rights while the case proceeded to a final resolution. The trial court granted our motion in part and our clients resumed their sidewalk counseling efforts.
After the entry of the preliminary injunction, we settled the case with the City through what is known as a consent judgment. Under the terms of the consent judgment, our clients can now continue their important work without fear of being wrongfully cited under the loitering ordinance. Women once again will receive important information from these sidewalk counselors that they would not receive from an abortion clinic.
Judith and JoAnn were kind enough to send us written sentiments expressing their appreciation for the work of the ACLJ in upholding their First Amendment rights and allowing them and other pro-life advocates to continue their important work in Fort Myers.
Judith noted one example of the fruits of their good work:
One day I walked into a pregnancy center and saw a darling, cheery, pink-cheeked 2 year old girl whose mom was pregnant and was sitting with her in the waiting room. Upon coming out of my short appointment, I made eye contact with the little girl’s mother, and she asked me, “Are you one of the people on the sidewalk outside the abortion clinic?” I said yes, and she told me, “One of your people talked to me when I was pregnant with her (pointing to the 2 year old girl), and I decided not to abort. They gave me booties and a cross which I have hanging in her bedroom!”
We were both delighted, and I got to hug the little girl, a very great treat for me.
The ACLJ will continue to defend the rights of pro-life advocates, like Judith and JoAnn, who devote themselves to sharing the truth about abortion at the very time and place that it is needed the most.
It is with your financial support and prayers that we are able to achieve such wonderful victories. Thank you.