{"id":5659,"date":"2011-08-19T16:39:26","date_gmt":"2011-08-19T20:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/liveaction.org\/blog\/?p=5659"},"modified":"2013-03-31T03:39:51","modified_gmt":"2013-03-31T07:39:51","slug":"us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/","title":{"rendered":"US government suing 79-year-old grandfather who has saved 350 babies for $25,000 in damages!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>I wish I was making this up:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/liveaction.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/retta.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5660\" style=\"margin: 10px;\" title=\"retta\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/liveaction.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/retta.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"161\" \/><\/a>The Department of Justice is now prosecuting a 79-year-old grandfather. The reason: Richard Retta walks alongside women on the sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood abortion facility [in Washington, DC] and offers women hope that they can carry their babies to term.<\/p>\n<p>Obama\u2019s DOJ claims that Retta\u2019s sidewalk counseling violates the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, enacted by Congress in 1994. In a July 2011\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/2011\/07\/19\/Abort.pdf\">complaint<\/a>, the DOJ\u2019s Civil Rights Division says that Retta violated federal law because he \u201cwalks very closely beside patients\u201d as they enter the clinic. It also claims that Retta follows them when they leave. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/articles\/print\/274805\" target=\"_blank\">National Review<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But actually, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act allows people to walk besides patients who are coming and going, as long as they are on a public sidewalk (which was the case here, Retta&#8217;s lawyers claim). More than that, the Act actually <em>protects <\/em>what Retta was doing, because it specifically rules out &#8220;prohibiting any expressive conduct (including peaceful picketing or other peaceful demonstrations)&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>What is even more absurd is the fact that the US Department of Justice is suing Retta for $10,000 <em>plus <\/em>$15,000 in fines to his &#8220;victim&#8221;. Where is a 79-year-old grandfather supposed to come up with that sort of money?! The lawsuit also wants to prohibit all other pro-lifers who work with him to be prohibited from standing within 20 feet of the Planned Parenthood gate &#8212; even if they are on a public sidewalk.<\/p>\n<p>Hans A. Von Spakovsky tells us more about Retta&#8217;s life-saving record:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Nearly 350 women have kept their children because of conversations Retta personally had with them. He deserves thanks for saving hundreds of lives and making abortion rarer. Proponents of abortion claim that one of their goals is to reduce the number of abortions, yet Retta is being attacked by the Obama Justice Department because of his very success in persuading women to make life-giving choices.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;ve walked by this Planned Parenthood location in Washington, DC. The White House is right down the street from it. This sort of injustice against Retta should not be tolerated within sight of the President of a free country. Free Speech is the greatest threat to abortion and abortion advocates know it: because they will do anything to silence the truth.<\/p>\n<p>Including going after an elderly man like Mr. Retta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wish I was making this up: The Department of Justice is now prosecuting a 79-year-old grandfather. The reason: Richard Retta walks alongside women on the sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood abortion facility [in Washington, DC] and offers women hope that they can carry their babies to term. Obama\u2019s DOJ claims that Retta\u2019s sidewalk counseling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":5660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[19,908,909,910,14,911],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US government suing 79-year-old grandfather who has saved 350 babies for $25,000 in damages! - Live Action News<\/title>\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\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US government suing 79-year-old grandfather who has saved 350 babies for $25,000 in damages! - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I wish I was making this up: The Department of Justice is now prosecuting a 79-year-old grandfather. The reason: Richard Retta walks alongside women on the sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood abortion facility [in Washington, DC] and offers women hope that they can carry their babies to term. Obama\u2019s DOJ claims that Retta\u2019s sidewalk counseling [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-19T20:39:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-03-31T07:39:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/march_group_photo_og-1-700x467.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"467\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thomas Peters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Thomas Peters\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Thomas Peters\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb65cea3da47a962982f490fb4f8874b\"},\"headline\":\"US government suing 79-year-old grandfather who has saved 350 babies for $25,000 in damages!\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-19T20:39:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-03-31T07:39:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/\"},\"wordCount\":405,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"abortion\",\"department of justice\",\"free speech\",\"Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act\",\"Planned Parenthood\",\"richard retta\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/\",\"name\":\"US government suing 79-year-old grandfather who has saved 350 babies for $25,000 in damages! - Live Action News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-19T20:39:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-03-31T07:39:51+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"US government suing 79-year-old grandfather who has saved 350 babies for $25,000 in damages!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb65cea3da47a962982f490fb4f8874b\",\"name\":\"Thomas Peters\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f943463f4a087f8f2a08e7264199842?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f943463f4a087f8f2a08e7264199842?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Thomas Peters\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/thomas-peters\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"US government suing 79-year-old grandfather who has saved 350 babies for $25,000 in damages! - Live Action News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"US government suing 79-year-old grandfather who has saved 350 babies for $25,000 in damages! - Live Action News","og_description":"I wish I was making this up: The Department of Justice is now prosecuting a 79-year-old grandfather. The reason: Richard Retta walks alongside women on the sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood abortion facility [in Washington, DC] and offers women hope that they can carry their babies to term. Obama\u2019s DOJ claims that Retta\u2019s sidewalk counseling [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2011-08-19T20:39:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-03-31T07:39:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":467,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/march_group_photo_og-1-700x467.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Thomas Peters","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Thomas Peters","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/"},"author":{"name":"Thomas Peters","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb65cea3da47a962982f490fb4f8874b"},"headline":"US government suing 79-year-old grandfather who has saved 350 babies for $25,000 in damages!","datePublished":"2011-08-19T20:39:26+00:00","dateModified":"2013-03-31T07:39:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/"},"wordCount":405,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"keywords":["abortion","department of justice","free speech","Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act","Planned Parenthood","richard retta"],"articleSection":["Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/","name":"US government suing 79-year-old grandfather who has saved 350 babies for $25,000 in damages! - Live Action News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-08-19T20:39:26+00:00","dateModified":"2013-03-31T07:39:51+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-government-suing-79-year-old-grandfather-whos-saved-350-babies-for-25000-in-damages\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"US government suing 79-year-old grandfather who has saved 350 babies for $25,000 in damages!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb65cea3da47a962982f490fb4f8874b","name":"Thomas Peters","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f943463f4a087f8f2a08e7264199842?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f943463f4a087f8f2a08e7264199842?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Thomas Peters"},"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/thomas-peters\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5659"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}