Life Legal attorneys successfully negotiated with San Francisco city attorneys to protect the First Amendment rights of pro-lifers outside the city’s abortion clinics. On April 2, 86-year-old Ron K. was criminally cited outside a Planned Parenthood facility in the heart of San Francisco. Ron was at the clinic—as he has been for more than 10 years—to pray for women and offer them information about alternatives to abortion, including where to receive life-affirming medical care.
Three police officers approached Ron and issued a misdemeanor citation for allegedly violating the city’s “shelter in place” order. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood is allowed to stay open and perform elective abortions, gender transition “therapy,” and other harmful procedures.
Ron was violently assaulted outside the same San Francisco abortion mill last year. Life Legal Senior Staff Counsel Allison Aranda, a former prosecutor, urged the police department to take action and even provided officers with the identity and location of the assailant. SFPD did not take any meaningful steps to apprehend the perpetrator.
Shortly after Ron’s citation, Life Legal attorneys contacted the San Francisco city attorney’s office to demand a change in policy on behalf of pro-life advocates whose right to free speech was squelched under the shelter in place order.
Just yesterday, the City of San Francisco agreed to allow pro-lifers to resume their peaceful presence outside abortion clinics.