New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against the anti-abortion group Red Rose Rescue for protesting at clinics.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, alleges that Red Rose Rescue blocked entrances to abortion clinics and “made it their mission to terrorize reproductive health care providers and the patients they serve.”
“Red Rose Rescue has made it their mission to terrorize reproductive health care providers and the patients they serve,” said Attorney General James in a press release about the lawsuit. “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. 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.”
The attorney general specifically named activists Christopher “Fidelis” Moscinski, Matthew Connolly, William Goodman, Laura Gies, and John Hinshaw in the press release.
The attorney general's office said, "Red Rose Rescue is a radical anti-abortion group whose members seek to prevent abortions by trespassing into private medical facilities and clinics and refusing to leave until they are physically removed by law enforcement. Despite multiple convictions in New York and across the country, Red Rose Rescue continues to repeat their hateful, disruptive, and criminal misconduct, terrorizing reproductive health care providers and patients. In the past two years, Red Rose Rescue has delayed and interfered with the provision of reproductive health care services at three clinics in New York."
The press release also contained a slew of endorsements from liberal New York politicians and abortion advocates, including Planned Parenthood.“Planned Parenthood of Greater New York applauds New York Attorney General Letitia James for taking a stand against protestors outside our health centers that harass, threaten, and intimidate patients seeking health care,” said Dipal Shah, Executive Director and Chief External Affairs Officer, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York Action Fund. “Everyone deserves the ability to access the care they need without threat or fear. With this action, the Attorney General is standing up for New Yorkers’ right to access care with dignity. PPGNY is committed to fostering a safe environment that honors everyone’s right to access the full range of sexual and reproductive health care — which will always include abortion services. We are proud to continue to work with the Attorney General and lawmakers on long-term solutions to maintain safe and dignified access to our health centers, no matter what.”
During a Red Rose Rescue mission, according to their website, "a team of pro-lifers enter the actual places where the innocent unborn are about to be 'dragged to death.' In the words of Saint Mother Teresa, they enter the 'dark holes of the poor.' Red Rose Rescuers peacefully talk to women scheduled for abortion, with the goal of persuading them to choose life. They offer to them red roses as a sign of life, peace and love. Should the unborn still 'totter to execution' Red Rose Rescuers stay in the place of execution in solidarity with their abandoned brothers and sisters performing a non-violent act of defense through their continued presence inside the killing centers remaining with them for as long as they can."
"The Rescuers stay with the abandoned unborn, as the manifestation of our love for them recognizing that unborn children, as members of the human family, have a right to be defended. The rescuers will not leave the unwanted, but must be 'taken away.'"
An example of one of the group's actions can be viewed here:
In 2022, an associate of Red Rose Rescue, Lauren Handy, obtained a box containing 115 aborted fetuses from outside the Surgi-Center in DC. Five of them appeared to be within the 26-32 week range, which is typically considered far enough along to survive outside the womb.
The clinic is run by Dr. Cesare Santangelo, who was captured on video by Live Action News in 2013 saying that he does not provide life-saving care for viable, premature babies born after a failed abortion.
After performing naming ceremonies and funerals for the 110 first-term fetuses, the five in question were turned over to the police in hopes that autopsies would be conducted and that they would be given proper burials.
Photos and videos of the aborted babies went massively viral. They prompted calls for autopsies to determine if they were subjected to a partial-birth abortion, which remains against the law in the district. Last week, the remains of five infants were delivered to DC Metro police in a condition consistent with partial birth abortion or infanticide.
I'm calling for a full medical examination and police investigation to determine when and how these innocent babies died. pic.twitter.com/B2wRkKNgzs
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) April 5, 2022
Ashan Benedict, D.C. police’s executive assistant chief of police, said during a press conference that they appeared to have been aborted “in accordance with D.C. law [and] there doesn’t seem to be anything criminal in nature about that except for how they got into this house.” The department refused to order autopsies to confirm the claim.
