(LifeSiteNews) — Two conservative organizations recently filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) for failure to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request related to attacks on pro-life centers in the wake of the Dobbs decision.
On Monday, the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project and Advancing American Freedom (AAF) sued the DOJ for refusing to provide documents related to the agency’s potential failure to address pro-abortion violence with “equal justice under law,” breaking department standards and violating the FOIA.
“In the past several years, this country has seen a dramatic increase in violence against religious and pro-life organizations,” the complaint states. “But while the Department of Justice has aggressively enforced federal criminal laws to protect ‘pro-choice’ and other organizations espousing the Administration’s favored political or policy views, all publicly available evidence indicates that the Department’s response to this increased violence against religious and pro-life organizations has been anemic at best.”
The FOIA request at the center of the lawsuit “seeks to shed light on this apparent viewpoint based disparate treatment.”
Monday’s lawsuit alleges that the DOJ “failed to promptly review agency records for the purpose of locating and collecting those records that are responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA request.” It further argues that the agency “is wrongfully withholding non-exempt-agency records … by failing to segregate exempt information in otherwise non-exempt records.”
UPDATE (03/07/23): Walgreens won't dispense abortion pills in 20 states
The pressure is paying off. Walgreens' plan to dispense abortion pills nationwide is now in tatters, with the pharmaceutical giant announcing that it won't mail the pills to, or sell them within, 20 states.
The news comes after 20 Republican attorneys general warned CVS and Walgreens that doing so would be in violation of federal law and that they were opening themselves to penalties.
But we can't rest on our laurels with this boycott: Walgreens and CVS will only listen to us when their profits are threatened — we need a HUGE boycott so that blood money they get from selling abortion pills is dwarfed by the profits they lose when pro-life America shops elsewhere.
Even Politico admitted in its reporting that "pressure" from pro-life voters like you helped change Walgreens' plans, so now we're asking you to take the next step: simply share this petition with your friends and ask them to join the boycott.
Thank you!
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Walgreens and CVS will begin selling mifepristone — a powerful chemical that kills unborn children in the womb — if pro-life America does not ACT NOW.
Pro-life Americans MUST STOP the widespread sale and distribution of mifepristone by sending a message that only big-box stores will understand: A NATIONAL BOYCOTT OF WALGREENS AND CVS.
Walgreens and CVS are the newest back-door channels for the pro-abortion movement, now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.
Will you act now to STOP abortion drugs from reaching your pharmacy?
Our work in the pro-life movement is FAR from over, especially now that Walgreens and CVS have chosen to push deadly drugs in their stores and in our communities!
SIGN and SEND a message to Walgreens and CVS! This is completely unacceptable!
We must stop abortion from reaching our pharmacies and stop the abortion industry from poisoning our communities — before it’s too late.
These big-box stores respond only to profit. The pro-life movement must enact a national boycott if the abortion industry dares flood our neighborhoods!
SIGN and SEND a strong message to Walgreens and CVS: unless they immediately reverse course, the entire pro-life movement will BOYCOTT their stores!
SIGN NOW and send a clear message!
MORE INFORMATION:
CVS & Walgreens announce plans to dispense abortion pills after Biden FDA loosens restrictions
The two organizations submitted a FOIA request on September 30, 2022, alongside Americans United for Life, CatholicVote, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, Concerned Women for America, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, FaithWins, the Family Research Council, For America, Human Coalition, Keystone Policy, Students for Life Action, and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
“The request also reiterated Plaintiffs’ call for the Department ‘to publicly condemn these unlawful attacks [on pro-life groups]; to commit to vigorous efforts to prevent them, and to investigate and prosecute them; and to proactively engage with the affected faith communities and ensure their concerns and security needs are being met’,” the complaint states.
Additionally, the FOIA submission mentioned a request to meet with government officials “to discuss what plans are to ensure that these attacks never happen again,” but “to date, no such meeting has occurred.”
Within the request, the groups asked for “any and all records relating to or concerning communications internal to the DOJ” and “between the DOJ and the Domestic Policy Council or the Executive Office of the President on the subject of crimes or investigations (potential or otherwise) of crimes against pro-life organizations (including those communications where the DOJ is copied or blind copied).” They also requested all records sent “between the DOJ and any other entity…on the subject of pregnancy resource centers (also known as ‘crisis pregnancy centers’).”
Records were requested from the Office of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, Associate Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) between December 15, 2021 to present.
“On October 24, 2022, The Executive Office for United States Attorneys sent Plaintiffs a letter refusing to process the Request because a specific United States Attorney’s Office was not specified in the Request,” the complaint continues. Similarly, the FBI responded on February 27, dismissing it with the claim that it failed to “contain enough descriptive information to permit a search of our records.”
The plaintiffs have asked the court to require the DOJ to provide all non-exempt records in response to the FOIA request within 20 days of a court order, “enjoin Defendant from continuing to withhold any and all non-exempt records” relevant to the request, “enjoin Defendant from assessing fees or costs for Plaintiffs’ FOIA request” and “award Plaintiffs their costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees.”
“It is clear that President Biden’s politicized Department of Justice is fearful of igniting the wrath of the Far Left and abortion extremists,” general counsel for AAF J. Marc Wheat said in a press release. “The American people have a right to know why those who burned and vandalized pregnancy centers have not been held accountable for their violence against traditional conservatives and pro-life groups.”
“The American people deserve to know what’s going on and why these attackers aren’t being brought to justice,” Chelsey Youman, National Legislative Advisor with Human Coalition Action, said in a statement shared with LifeSiteNews. “We at Human Coalition support this lawsuit to bring transparency to the federal investigations and accountability to the attackers. These peaceful pregnancy centers serve pregnant women in need with free care. They should be protected from violence and hate crimes.”
LifeSiteNews has contacted The Heritage Foundation for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Data has shown that violence against pro-life groups and individuals was 22 times more prevalent than attacks on pro-abortion activists leading up to the Dobbs decision, numbers that remained steady after Roe v. Wade was overturned, as admitted by FBI Director Christopher Wray. In January, a federal grand jury indicted two abortion activists for vandalizing pro-life pregnancy centers with the intention of preventing the organizations from offering life-affirming alternatives to abortion.
While only two arrests have been made for more than a hundred similar attacks, Biden’s DOJ has put significant effort into targeting pro-lifers. Catholic sidewalk counselor Mark Houck became the face of the agency’s unequal justice when he was arrested in a heavily-armed FBI raid in September. Although Houck was acquitted of alleged FACE Act violations, the excessive use of force was recently defended by Wray.
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