DOJ accuses anti-abortion groups of blocking access to Ohio clinics

The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued a pair of anti-abortion activist groups Monday, accusing them of blocking access to Ohio reproductive care clinics in 2021.

The suit claims that the two groups, Citizens for a Pro Life Society and Red Rose Rescue, and seven individuals, physically prevented patients from accessing care by blocking waiting rooms and parking lots.

“Obstructing people from accessing reproductive health care and physically obstructing providers from offering it are unlawful,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement.

Activists allegedly filled a care center’s waiting room to prevent patients from accessing their appointments, physically blocked the doors of a clinic so nobody could be let in, and prevented a patient’s car from leaving a clinic.

The protests impacted two Cleveland suburb reproductive clinics in June 2021. The prosecution is part of a DOJ effort to focus on enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a 1994 law making it illegal to prevent access to reproductive care.

“Individuals have the right to access facilities in Ohio to make decisions about their own bodies, health and futures, in consultation with health care providers, free from force, threats of force, intimidation or physical obstruction,” U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko said in a statement.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) also sued Red Rose Rescue last year, similarly accusing the group of illegally preventing patients’ access to reproductive care in New York.

James said the group “made it their mission to terrorize reproductive health care providers and the patients they serve.”

Monica Migliorino Miller — the president of Citizens for a Pro Life Society, a founding member of Red Rose Rescue and one of the individuals named in the suit — called the DOJ complaint a “bogus initiative” meant to intimidate “peaceful pro-Lifers” in a statement to The Hill.

“The DOJ’s complaint totally falsifies and mischaracterizes what we do!” she wrote. “We do not use any form of physical obstruction, there is no restriction of freedom of movement for women seeking to kill their unborn children or abortion center staff.”

“We feel confident that we will prevail against this bogus initiative to intimidate peaceful pro-Lifers trying to help moms and save the unborn from violent acts of destruction,” she continued.

Updated 5:40 p.m. ET.