Old Enough to Be Informed

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Rochester Area Right To Life

CBR Philosophy: If students are old enough to choose abortion with no parental involvement,
then they're old enough to learn what they are choosing.

LA County Sheriffs, School Administrator, Sued For Banning Pro-Life Speech

ANN ARBOR, MI - This past March, Los Angeles County sheriff deputies, citing a California law that prohibits "disruptive" activity on any street adjacent to a school, prevented the operation of a truck displaying pictures of first-term aborted fetuses on the public streets near a middle school. As a result, the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit last Thursday alleging a violation of the Free Speech provision of the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) and two of its members, against the sheriff's department, the sheriff, several deputy sheriffs, and a school administrator.

Robert Muise, associate counsel with the Thomas More Law Center handling this case, acknowledged the controversial nature of the pictures and commented, "Regardless of how one feels about these disturbing photos, CBR has a constitutional right to display them. Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups have embedded themselves in public school systems throughout this country. So long as pro-abortion groups insist on targeting school-age children, it is appropriate that these same students receive at least a modicum of truthful education about abortion. CBR's photographs do not lie and they show abortion for what it is: the killing of an innocent human life."

CBR is a California-based, pro-life organization that displays controversial pictures depicting graphic images of first-term aborted fetuses on the sides of box body styled trucks. CBR drives these trucks on public streets and highways throughout the United States, including public streets adjacent to middle schools and high schools. CBR takes its pictures to middle schools and high schools because it believes there are students at these schools who have either had or are contemplating having an abortion without being fully informed of the truth or reality of abortion, and in many cases, without informing their parents. CBR believes that students who are old enough to have an abortion are old enough to see one.

According to the lawsuit, a CBR member was driving one of the trucks on a public street adjacent to the Dodson Middle School in Los Angeles County when he and another pro-lifer who was accompanying him in an escort sedan were pulled-over and detained by several deputies from the county sheriff's department. The deputies detained the pro-lifers for more than an hour and a half, searched their vehicles, and then warned them that their activity was disruptive and to not return to the school with their pictures, citing the California criminal code. The sheriffs solicited the assistance of a school administrator, who was also named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks a court declaration that it is unconstitutional to use this California law to restrict the operation of CBR's trucks on public streets, an order enjoining the defendants from doing so in the future, plus nominal damages and attorney fees.

Source: Thomas More Law Center, April 22, 2003

The Thomas More Law Center, a national, public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, defends and promotes the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life through education, litigation, and related activities. You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org .


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