News Release
For Immediate Release: 9.13.22
Contact: Peyton Luke, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
After Multiple Acts of Vandalism, Massachusetts Pregnancy Centers Ask Attorney General: Why Won’t You Help?
Pregnancy centers vandalized after Attorney General singles out, warns public about, vows to investigate pregnancy resource centers that provide pro-life reproductive health services.
Boston, MA—First Liberty Institute and the Massachusetts Family Institute sent a letter late yesterday on behalf of a coalition of pregnancy centers to Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey asking her why she refuses to enforce the law to protect these centers from the wave of criminal actions taken against them and requesting that she withdraw both a public letter and “consumer advisory” she issued threatening sanctions against these pro-life reproductive health facilities.
You can read the letter here.
“It is outrageous that the Attorney General would target pregnancy centers that offer essential medical services, counseling, along with diapers and knitted baby blankets to women in crisis while allowing dangerous vandals to go free,” said Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “Gen. Healey has a legal obligation to protect all reproductive health facilities, not just the ones she politically favors.”
Massachusetts Family Institute president Andrew Beckwith added, “No one should suffer violence for simply providing counseling and desperately needed baby supplies to women and their babies. The Attorney General’s singling out of pregnancy resource centers exhibits a hostility toward faith-based pregnancy centers that should be repugnant to everyone.”
In July, Attorney General Healey issued a “consumer advisory” followed by a letter that threatened civil actions against PRCs. PRCs are motivated by their religious beliefs to care for women facing unintended pregnancies by distributing free diapers, wipes, formula, baby food, blankets, and clothing, offering free screenings for STD’s and free pregnancy tests, along with offering parenting programs. Since then, numerous PRCs have been threatened, intimidated, and vandalized. The evening the Attorney General issued her advisory, a group calling itself “Jane’s Revenge” violently attacked Clearway Clinic, causing significant economic damage and stoking fear.
The letter reads, in part, “At a minimum, we ask that you outline the actions you have taken and intend to take to protect these PRCs. Has your office directed law enforcement to investigate the violent acts against the PRCs? Have you written a letter to the leadership of “Jane’s Revenge” informing them of the criminal and civil penalties your office may seek for their acts of vandalism and trespass against our clients? Are you pursuing civil sanctions against those interfering with access to reproductive health services, destroying or damaging a reproductive health facility, and intimidating and interfering with persons seeking or providing reproductive health services at these PRCs? Please respond with detailed actions taken by your office—or that your office intends to take—to protect the citizens of your state who work and volunteer at these PRCs to love, counsel, feed, and clothe mothers and their babies at their reproductive health facilities.”
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact Peyton Luke at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
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