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Pro-life advocates of a Brooklyn-based church are celebrating a victory after a nearly five-year legal battle against the state of New York.
On Tuesday, the state filed a dismissal of the charges in federal district court after claiming members of Church at the Rock had threatened abortion clinic patients outside of Choices Women’s Medical Center in Jamaica, New York.
In 2017, former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed the lawsuit alleging he received “complaints of the protesters’ extremely aggressive behavior.” But Pastor Kenneth Griepp says the group’s work outside of the clinic has always been peaceful.
“For the past nine years members of our church have gone out on Saturday mornings to one of the largest abortion clinics in New York City and lawfully pleaded with moms and dads to protect the lives of their unborn children,” Griepp said (link). “We offer information and tangible help for any needs they may have.”
The Thomas More Society represented Griepp and ten members of Church At the Rock.
“These peaceful pro-life advocates have been exercising their right to free speech – which includes the freedom to share information on abortion alternatives, even if Mr. Schneiderman doesn’t like it,” Thomas More Society General Counsel Andrew Bath said in a statement (link).
“As life-affirming Christians, they peacefully counsel women who are considering having an abortion,” he added.
Client Ken Griepp and the Church @ The Rock from Thomas More Society on Vimeo.
Thomas More Society Special Counsel Martin Cannon believes Schneiderman’s lawsuit was based on his allegiance to the abortion industry.
“The AG’s alleged pattern of violence and vitriol on the part of these peaceful pro-life advocates is without basis,” he said. “In fact, Schneiderman’s unwavering allegiance to abortion rights may have colored his judgment in this case, as there is not one documented and verified instance of the force, threat of force, physical obstruction, or following and harassing, of which he has accused our clients.”
Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Stephen Crampton argued the case and said peaceful pro-life activity is specifically protected under New York’s Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances law.
In August, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed an earlier decision and affirmed an initial lower court ruling in favor of the pro-life advocates.
“After the evidence was in and the witnesses had testified, the judge saw through the state’s case,” Crampton shared in a statement. “It collapsed like a house of cards. The judge specifically found that witness after witness for the state lied.”
“We are pleased to see the state of New York has finally come to its senses and dismissed these baseless charges,” he continued. “Justice has finally prevailed.”
“The case should never have been brought in the first place,” he added. “But the pro-abortion lobby is powerful in New York, and classless politicians like former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and current Attorney General Letitia James are only too happy to waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars prosecuting – or persecuting – Christians seeking to exercise fundamental First Amendment rights on the public sidewalks. Our clients’ only ‘crime’ was speaking out for the unborn, an unpopular and dangerous viewpoint in New York City.”
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at CBN