Letitia James (Left)
Editor’s note: this article was updated on Sept. 12 to add more information regarding the specifics of the December 2023 preliminary injunction.
CV NEWS FEED // The New York Attorney General’s Office is seeking to impose fines on the pro-life group Red Rose Rescue for continuing to carry out its mission of saving unborn children from abortion.
New York AG Letitia James announced in an August 27 press release that her office had filed a motion to hold Red Rose Rescue in contempt “for willfully defying a court order that prohibits the group and its members from blocking access to reproductive health care clinics.”
“Red Rose Rescue will stop at nothing to interfere with anyone seeking or providing reproductive health care,” James stated in the release, adding:
If Red Rose Rescue and its members want to flagrantly disregard a court order, then they must also be prepared to face the consequences. Too many New Yorkers have suffered at the hands of this hateful group – it is time they be held accountable for their blatant disregard of our laws, our courts, and our bodily autonomy.
The pro-life group’s website describes its ministry as “peaceful,” carried out by volunteers who enter abortion facilities, when possible, to speak with women who have scheduled abortions and convince them to choose life.
Volunteers offer women inside the clinics a red rose “as a sign of life, peace, and love.” Should the woman proceed with the abortion, the volunteers remain inside the facility “in solidarity with their abandoned brothers and sisters.”
James’ filing particularly focuses on one of the group’s members, Brianna Mangat, who operates under the alias Bernadette Patel. According to the AG’s office, Patel has been photographed protesting outside of abortion clinics on at least four separate occasions.
The filing comes after the AG obtained a preliminary injunction in December 2023 that prohibited the group and its members from coming within 15 feet of abortion clinics “with the intent to injure, intimidate, or interfere with any person because that person is or has been obtaining or providing reproductive health services, as proscribed by the FACE Act and the NYSCAA,” within the southern and eastern districts of the state, according to the 2023 ruling.
In the press release, the AG’s office noted that Patel resumed her protests within three weeks of the injunction being granted and “had previously indicated that OAG’s lawsuit would not stop her from obstructing access to clinics.”
The press release cited a July 2023 op-ed by Patel in which she states: “Like Satan trying to tempt and lead all followers of Christ to sin, the state is persecuting us, hoping we will falter in our pro-life beliefs or stop doing pro-life work. I certainly won’t, and neither will my friends.”
According to an August 27 lohud.com report, the director of Red Rose Rescue, Monica Miller, called the AG’s filing “one of the most bogus lawsuits ever” and denies that Patel had been acting on behalf of the ministry. Patel “is not even a member of the group because it ‘is not a formal group’ and therefore ‘has no members,'” Miller said, according to the article.
The sixth rule in the “Red Rose Rescue Code of Conduct” displayed on the group’s website explicitly states, however, that “those participating in a Red Rose Rescue will obey RRR leadership,” thereby implying the existence of a formal structure within the group.
James is asking the court to place sanctions of at least $500 per violation, totaling at least $2,000, to deter Patel and other Red Rose Rescue members from entering the buffer zone, according to the release.
“This action builds on prior enforcement efforts by OAG, including providing clinics covered by the court order with posters explaining the buffer zone protections and identifying leading members of Red Rose Rescue,” the release said.
