One Year After Dobbs, the Fight for Life Isn’t Over

One year ago, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a case that upended the abortion industry, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Dobbs was a historic victory and a day worthy of commemorating every June 24th. But as we warned you even then, we won that major battle, but the war to save defenseless babies across the country has only just begun.

We told you that the radical Left and Planned Parenthood would take the fight to the individual states. Now the abortion lobby is waging a national campaign to bulldoze pro-life laws and enshrine abortion on demand, even horrific extreme procedures, into state constitutions, completely sidestepping the Supreme Court.

But the good news is the ACLJ is fighting back in all 50 states. Here are just a handful of examples of the lifesaving cases we are currently fighting in the wake of Dobbs.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America v. Center for Medical Progress: The ACLJ is representing Troy Newman, a former board member of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), in a federal lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood. The abortion giant sued the CMP over undercover videos that exposed some of its horrendous abortion practices. The jury ultimately found the defendants liable to Planned Parenthood and returned a verdict of more than $2 million in damages, even though the truth of the videos was not challenged and Planned Parenthood did not assert a defamation claim.

We’re appealing this injustice and recently filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court to defend our client and stop Planned Parenthood from getting away with their abhorrent abortion practices. This case could quickly become the biggest Supreme Court case for life post-Dobbs.

Tamara R. v. National Archives and Records Administration: The ACLJ is representing four clients who visited the National Archives after January’s March for Life. Our clients were told by National Archives employees that they had to take off their religious, pro-life apparel or leave the museum. When one client questioned the order, a security officer said that the apparel would “incite others” and that our client was “disturbing peace.” One of our clients, a grandmother, was told that her pro-life T-shirt was “offensive” and had to be covered up or removed.

We filed a lawsuit against the National Archives for this intolerable harassment of pro-life kids and adults alike, and the court has entered a consent order preventing the National Archives from unconstitutionally kicking out pro-lifers as our case continues. The National Archives have now entered into mediation with us. The security guard who targeted our clients has been removed, but we want to know who gave the order to target pro-life visitors. Everyone involved must be held accountable, or this will happen again – and it might not stop at museums.

Kristi L. v. National Air and Space Museum: We’re also representing nine students and three parents who were unlawfully targeted for their pro-life views by staff members and security officers of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum after the March for Life.

The Smithsonian has agreed to enter into a consent order and preliminary injunction, which is a court order that will ensure that this type of unconstitutional discrimination against pro-life free speech never happens again.

As with our case against the National Archives, we continue to move forward with our lawsuit against the Smithsonian to find out who gave the order to target pro-life individuals.

Turco v. City of Englewood: Jeryl Turco has been lovingly and peacefully counseling on the public sidewalks outside the Metropolitan Medical Associates abortion business for 15 years in Englewood, New Jersey. In 2014, the city enacted buffer zones to ban pro-life speech around abortion clinics. Shortly after the Englewood law went into effect, the Supreme Court – unanimously – struck down a buffer zone law in Massachusetts (McCullen v. Coakley) as a violation of the free speech rights of pro-life sidewalk counselors. Other states soon followed in repealing buffer zone laws, but not Englewood. So we sued the city, arguing that, like the Massachusetts law struck down in McCullen, Englewood's law violated the Constitution. Even after the victory in Dobbs, this case has remained a battle, and we are currently awaiting a decision from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals after filing our briefs earlier this year.

Harpring v. Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government: Our clients, Ed Harpring and Mary Kenney, have been sidewalk counseling outside a Louisville abortion clinic for decades. Unfortunately, Louisville put buffer zones around their abortion clinics, even though the Supreme Court previously ruled such buffer zones violated the free speech of pro-life advocates.

As in the Turco sidewalk case, we filed a lawsuit asking a federal district court to enjoin Louisville’s new buffer zone law for violating both the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Sixth Circuit agreed, reversing the district court’s decision and ordering it to preliminarily enjoin the county from enforcing the law. In other words, sidewalk counselors are free to use the entirety of the public sidewalk – including the area immediately outside abortion clinics – until the district court makes a final decision on the ordinance. We are preparing for trial in this case.

ACLJ v. HHS: The Biden Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) continues to fund research that involves using aborted babies’ body parts for experimentation, including with federal taxpayer dollars. President Biden actually REVERSED a ban to stop laboratories and universities from using aborted babies in taxpayer-funded research.

We sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to HHS to get to the bottom of this disgusting practice. American taxpayers should know how their tax dollars are being spent. As usual, the White House ignored our FOIA, so we filed another lawsuit against the Biden Administration over this disturbing practice.

Alliance For Hippocratic Medicine, et al. v. U.S. FDA: The Biden Administration has continued to try to make abortion access easier, even using the U.S. Postal Service to deliver deadly abortion pills. We filed a critical amicus brief in this case supporting a pro-life challenge to the abortion pill. The lawsuit specifically challenged (1) the FDA’s initial approval, in 2000, of the abortion pill (RU-486) for use in the United States, as well as (2) the FDA’s subsequent removal, in 2016 and 2021, of various health safeguards and limits on the administration of the abortion pill.

The case recently went before the Supreme Court, where we filed another amicus brief. We have now filed a fourth amicus brief in this case as the case has returned to the court of appeals.

Elderly Pro-Lifers Brutally Beaten Outside Planned Parenthood: In the wake of Dobbs, we’ve also seen a frightening uptick in attacks on pro-life Pregnancy Resource Centers as well as pro-life individuals. We are representing two elderly pro-life counselors who were brutally attacked by a violent abortion extremist. They were savagely beaten to a pulp for peacefully protesting outside a Maryland Planned Parenthood. As of this writing, the attacker is still at large and represents a real danger to all pro-life volunteers and medical professionals. We are working with local authorities to make sure this vile attacker is identified, arrested, and charged to the full extent of the law.

This is just a small sampling of the current cases we are engaged in to fight the taxpayer-funded abortion industry, defend pro-life workers, and save babies. We are filing in numerous state Supreme Courts (learn more about our work here) and engaging in state-based legislative and legal efforts to defend life (here). The battles are varied from coast to coast, but our commitment to life is unwavering. And it’s imperative that you know the laws in your state and what you can do to stand up for life, even after the end of Roe. That’s why we created a detailed U.S. Abortion Law Map by State to make you aware of your state’s abortion laws and the status of any ongoing litigation since the Dobbs decision.

Roe may have been defeated, but the lives of countless babies still remain in danger every day as extreme abortionists like Planned Parenthood use their power and influence to increase and spread their deadly empire. Our battles continue. We need you with us.