{"id":244761,"date":"2021-05-10T09:42:11","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T14:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=244761"},"modified":"2021-05-10T14:46:32","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T19:46:32","slug":"ny-sidewalk-counseling-disturbing-turn-surprise-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/ny-sidewalk-counseling-disturbing-turn-surprise-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"NY sidewalk counseling case takes disturbing turn after surprise court ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A New York legal case reported<\/a> on by Live Action News in 2019, which has\u00a0implications for sidewalk counselors and prayer warriors outside abortion facilities nationwide, has taken an unexpected turn for the worse.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, brought in 2017 by then-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, concerned 10 congregants at Brooklyn’s Church@theRock who have sidewalk counseled outside of Choices Women’s Center in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens for the last\u00a0nine years.\u00a0Schneiderman claimed the pro-lifers were guilty of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act by physically blocking women from entering the abortion facility, harassing them, and even issuing death threats. He claimed these alleged grievances merited issuance of a temporary injunction banning them from the sidewalks while the case was decided.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the pro-lifers’ legal counsel, the Thomas More Society (TMS), presented oral arguments to the New York 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals after the AG’s office appealed the original judge’s ruling denying an injunction against the pro-lifers. That injunction was denied when plaintiffs presented contradictory and even plagiarized “evidence” from witnesses for the abortion facility and the AG’s office.<\/p>\n

But in March of 2021, the pro-lifers received<\/a> a stunning and legally unprecedented setback<\/a>. The Appeals Court ruling reversed the original judge’s ruling in part, “issuing an opinion favoring the state\u2019s position in this contentious court case that had featured fabricated evidence against the Church@TheRock defendants,” according to TMS.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0An effort to \u2018silence dissenters\u2019: California targets pro-life sidewalk advocates<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Among the shocking components of the ruling, the Second Circuit claimed the following could be considered “physical obstruction” under the FACE Act:<\/p>\n