A federal judge ruled an anti-abortion group violated state and national law by sending its members into reproductive health clinics to block patients from receiving care.
Southern District Judge Kenneth Karas said members of Red Rose Rescue broke laws that prohibit obstructing access to abortion centers when they occupied waiting rooms and barricaded doors at clinics in Nassau and Westchester counties in 2021 and 2022.
The ruling on Friday is a significant milestone in the case, which has been litigated since 2023. Attorney General Letitia James’ office is seeking civil penalties for the defendants and orders barring them from coming within 30 feet of reproductive health facilities in the state. The court has yet to set a future proceeding to hand down potential remedies.
The suit, which named Red Rose Rescue and several of its members under the U.S. Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and state Clinic Access Act, is part of a number of actions the attorney general’s office has taken since the end of Roe V. Wade. Earlier this month, James joined an amicus brief with 16 other attorney’s general in a Supreme Court case over a South Caroline policy to restrict Medicaid funding to abortion clinics.
The defendants in the latest case were found to have trespassed on clinic property, refused to leave, and physically blocked access to the facilities. On several occasions, the group entered clinics, often posing as a patient, before occupying the waiting room and insisting procedures stop, forcing people to delay or miss their appointments.
In one instance, Christopher Moscinski, a Franciscan friar, entered the waiting room of All Women’s Care in Manhasset with other members of the group and changed into a friar’s robe, disrupting operations for hours and going limp when police threatened him with arrest. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years of probation for criminal trespass and obstructing police.
A year later, in July 2022, Moscinski padlocked the gates of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Hempstead. Police and firefighters used an electric saw to cut the locks only for Moscinski to lay down in front of traffic.
In a third incident in 2021, the group occupied All Women’s Health in White Plains for which Moscinski and two others were sentenced to three months in jail for criminal trespassing.
