{"id":253076,"date":"2021-09-13T06:38:41","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T11:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=253076"},"modified":"2021-09-12T21:43:28","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T02:43:28","slug":"court-favor-texas-pro-life-activist-sued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/court-favor-texas-pro-life-activist-sued\/","title":{"rendered":"Court rules in favor of Texas pro-life activist sued for defamation"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

The 7th District Court of Appeals in Texas ruled in favor<\/a> of pro-life activist Mark Lee Dickson on September 3 against the\u00a0Lilith\u00a0Fund, a pro-abortion Texas group that gives financial aid to help women about their babies.<\/p>\n

The court unanimously ruled<\/a> to dismiss the\u00a0suit, which accused Dickson of defamation and conspiracy in 2020. Dickson is the Director of Right to Life of East Texas and Founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative. At issue is the fact that when discussing one of the Lilith Fund’s billboards which stated, “Abortion is Freedom,” Dickson countered that the billboard advocated “for the murder of… innocent lives,” adding that abortion is “murder” and “criminal” in light of the pre-Roe v. Wade<\/em> Texas statutes that criminalized abortion \u2014 and which have never been repealed, though they are currently unenforceable due to Roe.<\/p>\n

The court determined that, concerning “defamation or protected opinion,” Dickson’s words were constitutionally protected. It said the lower court that allowed the case to continue had “erred.” It also ruled that the pro-abortion Lilith Fund must pay Dickson’s court costs and attorney fees.<\/p>\n

READ:<\/strong>\u00a0Kentucky city passes ordinance to stifle pro-life free speech<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Being opinion, the comments uttered by Dickson and upon which Lilith based its suit are inactionable,” said the court.<\/p>\n

Thomas More Society special counsel Erick Kaardal called<\/a> the lawsuit a “deliberate campaign to muzzle the voices of those who support life, especially when those voices seek to remind the public that the law of Texas continues to define abortion as a criminal offense, despite Roe v. Wade<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

“This is a huge victory for freedom of speech,” said Dickson. “The Lilith Fund has been attempting to stifle and intimidate pro-life speech by filing defamation lawsuits against people who call abortion ‘murder’ or who point out that Texas has never repealed its pre-Roe v. Wade criminal abortion statutes. We are pleased that the Court of Appeals has dismissed the case, and we’re especially grateful that the Court has ordered the Lilith Fund to pay our attorneys’ fees for the costs of defending this ridiculous lawsuit.”<\/p>\n

Abortion is not healthcare and it has only one intent \u2014 to violently kill innocent preborn human beings who have been deemed too “unwanted,” “unhealthy,” and “unworthy” to live.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 7th District Court of Appeals in Texas ruled in favor of pro-life activist Mark Lee Dickson on September 3 against the\u00a0Lilith\u00a0Fund, a pro-abortion Texas group that gives financial aid to help women about their babies. The court unanimously ruled to dismiss the\u00a0suit, which accused Dickson of defamation and conspiracy in 2020. Dickson is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":192552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3473,11],"tags":[12734,19,12733,909,12732,10731,10012,10132,10969,82,2677],"yoast_head":"\nCourt rules in favor of Texas pro-life activist sued for defamation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An appeals court in Texas ruled in favor of pro-life activist Mark Lee Dickson, in a case involving the attempt by the\u00a0Lilith\u00a0Fund to silence him.\" \/>\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\/court-favor-texas-pro-life-activist-sued\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court rules in 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