A Pro-Life Activist Called Abortion Advocacy Groups ‘Criminal Organizations.’ A Texas Court Ruled It Was Protected Speech. | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Ashe Schow.

    The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that comments made by a pro-life activist, in which he called several pro-abortion organizations "criminal," are protected speech under the First Amendment.

    Mark Lee Dickson, director of Right to Life of East Texas and the founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn (SCU) movement, was sued in June 2020 by the Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity, the Afiya Center, and the Texas Equal Access Fund after he called them "criminal organizations" that "murder innocent unborn children."

    The organizations sued Dickson for defamation, but on Friday the Texas Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision written by Justice Jane Bland, wrote that "the challenged statements are protected opinion about abortion law made in pursuit of changing that law, placing them at the heart of protected speech under the United States and Texas Constitutions."

    The justices wrote that Dickson "did not urge or threaten violence, nor did he misrepresent the underlying conduct in expressing his opinions about it." Therefore, Texas Scorecard reported, the defamation lawsuits against him were dismissed and labeled attempts to "chill a citizen's exercise of free speech."

    "I am thankful that the Lilith Fund, which shares a name with a demon that preys on women and children, was not successful in their attempt to stop me from referring to their organization as a criminal organization involved in the murder of innocent children," Dickson said in a statement to The Daily Wire. "I hope the Lilith Fund and the other two abortion assistance groups get out of the baby-murdering business."

    "Abortion is murder, the abortion industry is involved in the murder of innocent children, and we will continue to speak out against these criminal organizations who have a reputation of hurting women and ending the lives of their children," Dickson added.

    While Right To Life of East Texas has been around since shortly after Roe v. Wade was decided, Dickson's SCU movement began in 2019 when he was able to convince the city of Waskom, Texas, to prohibit abortion within its city limits, just as some Left-wing cities had declared themselves sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants.

    Waskom's city council unanimously passed the ordinance banning abortion providers and pro-abortion organizations from operating within the city, labeling them in the ordinance as "criminal organizations." It was this phrase that Dickson repeated when posting about the ordinance on social media, Texas Scorecard reported.

    The movement grew, with 11 additional cities following Waskom's lead. In 2020, seven of these 11 cities were sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for discrimination, but the organization dropped the lawsuit after they removed the "criminal organizations" language from their ordinances.

poll#152

With Roe v Wade (originated in 1973) overturned by the US Supreme Court, thereby allowing decisions on abortion legislation completely returned to the states: Where do you find your position on such a "Life and Death" issue for the American People?

  Yes, I approve of the US Supreme Court's decision to reinstate this "medical" issue back to the states' legislative responsibility to regulate.

  No, I believe that every woman should have complete access to abortion on demand.

  This issue is far beyond my intellectual capacity to understand.

583 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#150

With respect to the leaked opinion not yet written for ratification regarding the U.S. Supreme Court's revisiting the original decision of Roe v Wade, whence now nonstop protests have erupted in neighborhoods where U.S. Supreme Court justices live, exhibiting the firm intent to intimidate these officers of the highest court in the land: What action should the federal authorities take?

  Do nothing ... Protests are a fixture of a free society.

  Enforce the law ... Federal codes exist to prohibit any intimidation through the pubic harassment of federal judges, especially Supreme Court justices.

  I have no idea, however, northern Virginia School Board Members must be shielded from protests at all costs.

548 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?