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Pro-lifers' rights at risk again

Pro-lifers' rights at risk again


Pro-lifers' rights at risk again

The California Assembly has passed and sent to the state Senate a bill that would seriously hamper the work of sidewalk counselors and prevent documentation of the serious incidents that take place at the state's abortion clinics.

AB 1356, sponsored by Planned Parenthood of California, reportedly amends the state's Reproductive Health Care Services Act to create what amounts to several new "thought crimes" based on the supposed malicious "intent" of the pro-life person. In short, Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue tells One News Now the measure would prevent abortion clinics from having their secrets exposed.

"That includes every time they injure a woman or if they should kill a woman like we've seen in the past," she explains. "Any time that a pro-lifer is assaulted on the street, if the pro-lifer videotaped it, it would be against the law to post that online."

The bill establishes a large buffer zone around the clinics.

Sullenger, Cheryl Sullenger

"So if you're within that 100 feet, you could literally go to jail for a year if you snapped a photo of a clinic worker or snapped a photo of a woman on a gurney being loaded into an ambulance," the pro-lifer reports.

Operation Rescue has depended on local pro-lifers gathering evidence and filming such incidents of misbehavior. So far it has led to four California abortionists surrendering their licenses and one getting sent to prison for doing illegal abortions.

Sullenger adds that The Golden State does not seem to have learned its lesson from a previous law that likewise violated the rights of pro-life pregnancy centers. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against California.