North Carolina Pro-Lifers Sue City After Being Arrested for Prayer Outside of Abortion Clinic
Richard Moorhead
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A group of North Carolina pro-life activists are suing the city of Greensboro, North Carolina for arresting them as they prayed outside an abortion center in the city. The activists, who belonged to the group Love Life, were arrested in accordance with the city’s coronavirus and social distancing guidelines for the Chinese coronavirus.
The activists were arrested last week for violating ‘stay at home’ orders. Merely four of them- no great crowd in which coronavirus would be likely present- were praying outside an abortion center called A Woman’s choice. The Greensboro Police tried repeatedly to get the activists to leave the scene voluntarily before taking them into custody. A police press release on the incident describes four men being charged with violating Greensboro’s Stay at Home ordinance and obstructing a peace officer.
Seven pro-life activists who arrived to protest the abortion center the following Monday were arrested by the Greensboro Police as well, demonstrating a willingness to continually arrest those who engage in the protest of the facility.
A lawsuit regarding the matter has been filed by the Thomas More Society, accusing the Greensboro Police Department of violating the pro-life demonstrators’ First Amendment rights. Another pro-life activist in Michigan is also filing a lawsuit against Michigan’s Democratic governor for his arrest while safely protesting an abortion center in Detroit alone.
If municipalities such as Greenboro want to enforce social distancing and stay at home rules, they need to realize that wide-ranging exceptions need to be made for people to participate in certain religious and political ceremonies. There is no excuse for arresting people for gathering outside in a crowd of four, especially when it’s to express their most valued moral and spiritual principles.
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