Breaking news! U.S. District Judge William Pauley has halted an unjust law passed by the New York City Council that would have required pro-life pregnancy centers to post large signs prominently stating that they do not perform or refer for abortions at their premises. Judge Pauley agreed with the arguments that the law is an unconstitutional infringement upon the first amendment free speech rights of the pregnancy centers and that the law would cause irreparable harm to the pregnancy centers.
We all know what’s behind this law. The abortion industry wants to prevent pro-life pregnancy centers from making the choice for life easier for women in crisis pregnancies. They hate the fact that groups such as Chris Slattery’s Expectant Mother Care and the Good Counsel Homes are having major success in deterring women from having abortions by giving women all the facts about human life and about the negative effects of abortion. They are alarmed by how successful the pregnancy center movement has been over the last many years and they want to use the coercive power of the state to silence the pro-life movement’s most ingenious method of directly challenging their bottom line.
Our good friends at the Alliance Defense Fund represented the pregnancy centers in the case, and LifeSiteNews.com obtained a quote from ADF attorney Matt Bowman, who argued the case before Judge Pauley. “It’s really simple: The government can license the practice of medicine, it cannot license free speech…Pro-life pregnancy centers are offering free hope and help to pregnant women and their children; they are not selling a medical procedure which, without consent, would amount to physical assault.”
While the pro-life movement has largely been on the offensive in the last six months in our efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, institute fetal pain-based abortion restrictions, and pass ultrasound bills (among many other recent successes), we must never forget that the abortion industry is a enormous machine, well-oiled by big money and mainstream media favoritism, and they won’t rest in their efforts. We pro-lifers must NEVER shirk from our noble duty to advance the cause of liberty and justice for the preborn child.
