New York City tries to deny pro-life choices

WHO: Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman

WHAT: Available for media interviews after oral arguments in Pregnancy Care Center of New York v. City of New York

WHEN: Friday, September 14, immediately following hearing which begins at 10 a.m. EST

WHERE: Outside of the building at Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, 500 Pearl Street, New York, NY 10007. Hearing is at Ceremonial Courtroom, 9th floor.

NEW YORK — Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman will be available for media interviews immediately following oral arguments Friday before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in Pregnancy Care Center of New York v. City of New York.

“Pro-life pregnancy centers, which offer free help and hope to women and their preborn children, shouldn’t be punished by political allies of the abortion industry,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The appeals court should affirm the trial court’s injunction order, which keeps the city from enforcing an anti-speech law designed to deter women from receiving the help they need to make fully informed choices about their pregnancy. The order also means that the court is likely to find the ordinance unconstitutional.”

 

In July 2011, a federal court issued an order that prohibits the city of New York from enforcing an ordinance that threatens non-medical, pro-life pregnancy services centers with heavy fines and possible closure if they don’t provide printed and oral notices crafted by the city that encourage women to go elsewhere. The city appealed that loss.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed Bill 371-A into law in March 2011 after it passed the city council. Two federal courts have issued injunctions against similar bills in Maryland. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represent a pregnancy care center in one of the cases and recently filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the other.

Alliance Defending Freedom filed Pregnancy Care Center of New York v. City of New York in March 2011 and later filed a motion for a preliminary injunction as well as a brief in response to arguments made in favor of the law by the New York Civil Liberties Union. M. Todd Parker of Moskowitz & Book, LLP is local counsel.
 

Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly Alliance Defense Fund) is an alliance-building legal ministry that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.