{"id":225547,"date":"2020-06-13T11:31:05","date_gmt":"2020-06-13T16:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=225547"},"modified":"2020-06-14T08:19:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-14T13:19:45","slug":"texas-pro-life-leader-defamation-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/texas-pro-life-leader-defamation-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-abortion organizations sue Texas pro-life leader for calling abortion ‘murder’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Three pro-abortion groups have filed\u00a0lawsuits<\/a> against Texas pro-life advocate Mark Lee Dickson claiming defamation. Dickson, Director of Right to Life East Texas, has helped lead the movement to declare Texas municipalities as Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit comes two weeks after two of the same abortion groups along with the ACLU of Texas and ACLU National\u00a0dropped their lawsuit<\/a> against seven Texas cities that had declared themselves Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn.\u00a0In this latest legal challenge, abortion groups the Lilith Fund, the Afiya Center and Texas Equal Access Fund (TEA Fund) are suing Dickson and Right to Life East Texas for referring to the abortion groups as \u201ccriminal organizations\u201d and referring to abortion as \u201cmurder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Texas

Gary, Texas. Santucary City for the Unborn. Photo: Mark Lee Dickson<\/p><\/div>\n

Dickson received a letter<\/a> from the Dallas-based law office of Thompson Coburn, LLP, informing him of a formal request to retract statements the abortion groups consider defamation. The letter, shared with Live Action News, states that Dickson and Right to Life East Texas \u201cmade numerous statements that label our clients \u2018criminal\u2019 or \u2018criminal organizations,\u2019 or state or imply that these organizations have committed or are presently committing crimes under Texas law,\u201d which the groups find false and defamatory.<\/p>\n

The letter goes on to list public statements and Facebook posts by Dickson. Through their legal representative, the abortion groups are requesting that Dickson retract and \u201cclarify\u201d his statements. The letter also suggests they will seek \u201cdamages to compensate our clients for the injury to their reputations you have caused, and the expense of litigation you have forced upon them.\u201d The letter further states, \u201cWe may also seek punitive damages given the obviously intentional nature of this defamation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickson told the Longview News-Journal<\/a>, \u201cI have no reason to retract anything that I said. Abortion is the murder of innocent unborn human beings. The Lilith Fund and other abortion-aiding organizations all take part in the murder of innocent unborn human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0WATCH: Professor pleads with city leaders to create \u2018sanctuary city for the preborn\u2019<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dickson told Live Action News that he plans to fight the lawsuit. He said, \u201cWe think this is a great opportunity. We want to see this in the courts. We want to see this discussed because it gets to the heart of the issue: abortion is murder.\u201d The ordinances declaring municipalities Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn passed in at least 12 Texas cities<\/a>, and Dickson says more are seeking to move forward with ordinances of their own.<\/p>\n

Jonathan F. Mitchell, a former Solicitor General of Texas, Stephen Klein, a D.C.-based attorney, and Texas State Senator Bryan Hughes will be representing Dickson and Right to Life East Texas.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note, 6\/14\/20<\/strong>: Minor changes were made for accuracy in this article.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three pro-abortion groups have filed\u00a0lawsuits against Texas pro-life advocate Mark Lee Dickson claiming defamation. Dickson, Director of Right to Life East Texas, has helped lead the movement to declare Texas municipalities as Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn. The lawsuit comes two weeks after two of the same abortion groups along with the ACLU of Texas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":191935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nPro-abortion organizations sue Texas pro-life leader for calling abortion 'murder'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Three pro-abortion groups have filed a lawsuit against Texas pro-life advocate Mark Lee Dickson, head of Right to Life East Texas, claiming defamation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/texas-pro-life-leader-defamation-murder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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