Tag Archives: ZZ: Pregnancy Care Center of New York v. City of New York

One News Now: Attorney Matt Bowman of Alliance Defending Freedom tells OneNewsNow the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals paid close attention to arguments concerning the ordinance. “I think the court had a lot of good questions,” he says. “The judges disagreed with each other about some of the questions but they all had read the issues, and I think they were really confronted with the fact that to uphold this law you would have to allow the government to force people to say things because the government disagrees with them politically.”

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.

LifeNews.com: ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman commented on the law and the lawsuit in remarks to LifeNews.com. “Pro-life pregnancy centers, which freely offer real help and hope to women and their preborn children, shouldn’t be punished by political allies of those who make their money aborting babies,” he said. “This order keeps the city from enforcing a law that is specifically designed to deter pregnant women from receiving the help they need to make fully informed choices about their pregnancy while this lawsuit goes forward. The order also means that the court is likely to find the ordinance unconstitutional.” Bowman noted the court was also critical of the New York Civil Liberties Union’s defense of the city ordinance: “Given the New York Civil Liberties Union’s (“NYCLU”) usual concern for First Amendment rights, its amicus brief supporting Defendant’s expansive view of the commercial speech doctrine is puzzling.”

LifeNews.com: ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman commented on the law and the lawsuit in remarks to LifeNews.com. “Pro-life pregnancy centers, which freely offer real help and hope to women and their preborn children, shouldn’t be punished by political allies of those who make their money aborting babies,” he said. “This order keeps the city from enforcing a law that is specifically designed to deter pregnant women from receiving the help they need to make fully informed choices about their pregnancy while this lawsuit goes forward. The order also means that the court is likely to find the ordinance unconstitutional.” Bowman noted the court was also critical of the New York Civil Liberties Union’s defense of the city ordinance: “Given the New York Civil Liberties Union’s (“NYCLU”) usual concern for First Amendment rights, its amicus brief supporting Defendant’s expansive view of the commercial speech doctrine is puzzling.”

ADF attorney Matt Bowman appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the recent victory in New York and ADF’s ongoing commitment to defend Pregnancy Care Centers. | MP3 audio 12:20 mins

Hot Air: Judge William Pauley III called the new law “offensive to free-speech principles” and halted its enactment while a lawsuit filed on behalf of two pregnancy-care centers and a maternity home by the Alliance Defense Fund continues.

Catholic News Agency (CNA): “Pro-life pregnancy centers, which freely offer real help and hope to women and their preborn children, shouldn’t be punished by political allies of those who make their money aborting babies,” said attorney Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group . . . Attorney Matt Bowman said Judge Pauley’s decision “keeps the city from enforcing a law that is specifically designed to deter pregnant women from receiving the help they need to make fully informed choices about their pregnancy while this lawsuit goes forward.”

WORLD Magazine: Heil of the ACLJ praised the judge’s decision: “This law, which forces pregnancy care centers to adopt and express views about abortion and contraception that they strongly disagree with, is constitutionally flawed.” The ACLJ helped work on the case, along with the Alliance Defense Fund and the Catholic Lawyers Association. The local attorney arguing the case was M. Todd Parker—a graduate of Covenant Seminary in St. Louis—of Moskowitz & Book, LLC in New York City.

Courthouse News Service: A lawyer for the facilities praised the injunction in a press statement. “This order keeps the city from enforcing a law that is specifically designed to deter pregnant women from receiving the help they need to make fully informed choices about their pregnancy while this lawsuit goes forward,” wrote Matthew Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian advocacy group. “The order also means that the court is likely to find the ordinance unconstitutional.”

LifeNews.com: ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman commented on the law and the lawsuit in remarks to LifeNews.com. “Pro-life pregnancy centers, which freely offer real help and hope to women and their preborn children, shouldn’t be punished by political allies of those who make their money aborting babies,” he said. “This order keeps the city from enforcing a law that is specifically designed to deter pregnant women from receiving the help they need to make fully informed choices about their pregnancy while this lawsuit goes forward. The order also means that the court is likely to find the ordinance unconstitutional.” Bowman noted the court was also critical of the New York Civil Liberties Union’s defense of the city ordinance: “Given the New York Civil Liberties Union’s (“NYCLU”) usual concern for First Amendment rights, its amicus brief supporting Defendant’s expansive view of the commercial speech doctrine is puzzling.”

AP on NPR: “The ordinance threatens non-medical, pro-life pregnancy services centers with heavy fines and possible closure if they don’t provide posted, printed, and oral notices crafted by the city that encourage women to go elsewhere,” said the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative religious rights organization that represented two pregnancy centers and a maternity home in the case.

LifeSiteNews.com: Chris Slattery of Expectant Mother Care/EMC FrontLine Pregnancy Centers called today’s ruling “a complete vindication of our arguments made against this law” since it was first announced in October. Slattery thanked ACLJ and ADF lawyers for their “outstanding legal defense work for the New York City life centers, that will positively affect the entire country.”

ADF secures court order that halts NYC ordinance requiring pregnancy care centers to post patient-deterring signs or face stiff penalties

Courthouse News Service: Matthew Bowman, an attorney working for another conservative Christian organization called the Alliance Defense Fund, said that many states have different views about abortion and public health. He noted that informed-consent laws in several states obligate doctors to warn women about the cancer and health risks that can supposedly accompany an abortion.

LifeSiteNews.com: he American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) and the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) have asked for a preliminary injunction against implementation of the NYC Pregnancy Services Center Local Law 17 on behalf of three local crisis pregnancy center operators.

LifeNews.com: ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman also commented on the law and the lawsuit in remarks to LifeNews.com. “Pregnancy centers, which offer real help and hope to women, shouldn’t be punished by political allies of the abortion industry,” he said. “Attacks on pregnancy centers are an ideologically motivated attempt to distract from the growing national scandals in the abortion industry. For years, abortionists have preyed on women and girls for profit. Now pro-abortion politicians are trying to give women fewer choices.”

ADF attorney Matt Bowman on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the suit challenging NYC’s advertising restrictions on Crisis Pregnancy Care Centers. | MP3 audio 12:49 mins

ADF attorney Matt Bowman appeared on KFUO with Roland Lettner to discuss this: New York City sued over law targeting pregnancy care centers. | MP3 audio 23:50 mins

LifeNews: ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman, earlier this week, commented on the law and the lawsuit in remarks to LifeNews.com. “Pregnancy centers, which offer real help and hope to women, shouldn’t be punished by political allies of the abortion industry,” he said. “Attacks on pregnancy centers are an ideologically motivated attempt to distract from the growing national scandals in the abortion industry. For years, abortionists have preyed on women and girls for profit. Now pro-abortion politicians are trying to give women fewer choices.”

Christianity Today: “Earlier this month, New York City passed a bill requiring centers to disclose whether they provide abortions or emergency contraception, make referrals to organizations that do, and if they have a licensed medical provider on site. The Alliance Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit against the city.”

National Right to Life: The ADF lawsuit states, “Plaintiffs desire to offer their free, non-medical, non-commercial assistance to women without the threat of Bill 371-A forcing them to recite government-mandated speech, to be priced out of advertising to women in need, and to face fines, closure and jail time.” “Pregnancy centers, which offer real help and hope to women, shouldn’t be punished by political allies of the abortion industry,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “Attacks on pregnancy centers are an ideologically motivated attempt to distract from the growing national scandals in the abortion industry. For years, abortionists have preyed on women and girls for profit.  Now pro-abortion politicians are trying to give women fewer choices.”

Michael Foust writes at Baptist Press: Matt Bowman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, told Baptist Press that pro-choicers want to “shut down the real help and hope that pregnancy centers offer women.” ADF, a pro-life legal group, filed a suit against New York March 18. “There’s not any question that crisis pregnancy centers are being targeted,” Bowman told Baptist Press. “You can read the pamphlets from the abortion movement targeting them. It’s not hidden. I think these attacks on pregnancy centers are an attempt to distract from the growing national scandals in the abortion industry and to give women fewer choices when they experience an unexpected pregnancy.”

LifeSiteNews: The lawsuit filed by the Alliance Defense Fund is in response to Bill 371-A, which was signed into law by Mayor Michael Bloomberg last Wednesday . . . “At a time when New Yorkers believe the city’s abortion ratio to be too high, it’s absurd to see the city work with pro-abortion groups to ensure that the public is ‘protected’ from the ‘threat’ of these compassionate, caring, nonprofit groups that exist specifically because they oppose harm to women and their babies,” said Matt Bowman, legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF).

Life News: ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman commented on the law and the lawsuit in remarks to LifeNews.com. “Pregnancy centers, which offer real help and hope to women, shouldn’t be punished by political allies of the abortion industry,” he said. “Attacks on pregnancy centers are an ideologically motivated attempt to distract from the growing national scandals in the abortion industry. For years, abortionists have preyed on women and girls for profit. Now pro-abortion politicians are trying to give women fewer choices.”

New code requires centers to post, publish notices advising women to seek help elsewhere, but law does not affect abortion facilities