Organization Also Sued for Blocking Access to Two Long Island Clinics
By Hank Russell
Attorney General Letitia James recently filed a contempt order against the anti-abortion group Red Rose Rescue for willfully defying a court order that prohibits the group and its members from blocking access to women’s health care clinics. In addition, she is seeking sanctions of at least $500 per violation.
According to James, In the past two years, Red Rose Rescue has “delayed and interfered with the provision of reproductive health care services” at three clinics in New York, including two in Nassau County: Planned Parenthood in Hempstead and All Women’s Care in Manhasset. The AG’s Office claimed Red Rose Rescue caused patients to delay or miss their appointments.
In June 2023, James filed a lawsuit against the organization for blocking access to two clinics on Long Island. According to the lawsuit, Christopher “Fidelis” Moscinski, Laura Gies, John Hinshaw, and members of Red Rose Rescue entered All Women’s Care on April 24, 2021. One member of the group pretended to be a patient seeking care. After checking in for her appointment, she went to a side entrance and opened it to let in additional members, who went into the waiting room and lay on the ground screaming that they would not leave.
When Moscinski entered, he was carrying a black duffle bag, which staff and patients feared held weapons. He pulled out his friar’s robes and changed in the waiting room. Clinic staff, concerned about safety, directed patients to leave and take cover in their cars. Red Rose Rescue disrupted operations at the clinic for two hours. When threatened with arrest, they went limp and fell to the ground, forcing police to carry them out of the clinic.
On April 17, 2023, Hinshaw was sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years’ probation for criminal trespass and obstructing the police. Gies and Moscinski are currently serving jail sentences in Michigan and were sentenced on June 30, 2023.
In a second incident cited by James’ office, Moscinski placed six industrial locks and chains on the front gates of a Planned Parenthood clinic on July 7, 2022, blocking the driveway into the parking lot and pedestrian access gates so that staff and patients could not enter. Neither the police nor the fire department could cut the locks with manual tools and ultimately resorted to a battery-operated saw.
When the locks were finally removed, Moscinski laid down in the driveway to prevent cars from entering the facility and had to be physically removed and carried out by multiple police officers. Moscinski was convicted of criminal violation of the United States Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) and was sentenced on June 27, 2023.
In December 2023, OAG obtained a preliminary injunction that prohibited the group from coming within 15 feet of any reproductive health care facility in 13 downstate New York counties.
The contempt order was filed on August 27 when Red Rose member Bernadette Patel was allegedly within the 15-foot buffer at two Planned Parenthood clinics in New York City after the injunction was obtained.
“Red Rose Rescue will stop at nothing to interfere with anyone seeking or providing reproductive health care,” James said. “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.”
In response, Dr. Monica Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, said in a statement, “Red Rose Rescues do not violate the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Those who participate do not physically obstruct or interfere with anyone’s freedom of movement! Moreover, it is highly likely that the FACE law is unconstitutional.”
Miller said that the Department of Justice is “attempting to twist and stretch the language of this bad law. … If we were living in a world based on objective reality it is the so-called doctors who kill the innocent unborn who would be prosecuted, not those who honor the sanctity of life and seek to protect the innocent.”