On behalf of their client, Austin LifeCare, a pregnancy resource center that has been well-serving pregnant women in Texas since 1984, civil rights attorneys for the Jubilee Campaign's Law of Life Project, the Texas Center for the Defense of Life and the Alliance Defense Fund will return to federal court in Austin this Friday morning seeking a temporary restraining order to enjoin the enforcement of  Austin City Ordinance (Chapter 10-10) enacted last Thursday by the Austin City Council  that, like its predecessor (Chapter 10-9) that was repealed last week "to avoid further litigation costs," still without any justification unconstitutionally and nonsensically abridges Austin Life Care's rights to freedom of speech, association, due process and religious free exercise. 

Contact: Samuel B. Casey, 703-624-4092

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 1, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Attorneys with Jubilee Campaign's Law of Life Project and two other pro-life legal defense organizations announced this morning that they have filed a new verified amended complaint, an amended motion for preliminary injunction and an application for temporary restraining order asking the federal court, no later than this Friday, to enjoin the Ordinance (Chapter 10-10) which the City of Austin enacted last Thursday right after they repealed a similar Ordinance (Chapter 10-9) ostensibly "to avoid further litigation costs."

General Counsel of the Jubilee Campaign's Law of Life Project, Samuel Casey, said "if the City really wanted 'to avoid further litigation costs' adopting the new ordinance was a counterproductive way to do it. The City should have only repealed the unconstitutional ordinance we challenged last Fall. Instead they only assured 'further litigation' by working behind closed doors, and adopting a new, equally unconstitutional ordinance the public neither saw or nor had a fair opportunity to oppose until after it was adopted."

Austin LifeCare's Executive Director, Pam Cobern, said: "Austin LifeCare has been lawfully serving women in Central Texas with excellence and without charge for more than 27 years.  Our communications are clear, honest and appropriate.  We provide all clients with full disclosure of the types of 'life-affirming' services we provide starting with the 'about us' and 'services' tabs on our web site.  Every person who mentions abortion while calling Austin LifeCare for an appointment is told we neither perform nor refer for abortion.  Before she can meet with a counselor or nurse, the woman signs a statement that states 'the Center does not perform or refer for abortions.'  In addition, there are framed 'Commitment of Care' statements reiterating this fact displayed prominently in the waiting area. Our clients receive medically accurate and unbiased information, including limited ultrasound services under direct physician supervision, to help them make their own decision, not one imposed by someone else's agenda. Austin LifeCare trusts women, tells them the truth, and treats them with dignity and respect while respecting their right to choose in the most fully informed fashion they request."

Casey emphasized: "Having hand-delivered four demand letters to the City on April 22,  September 16, January 25 and  January 30, asking it to stand down from enforcing its unconstitutional ordinances and being completely stone-walled, in the face of our multiple requests for some reply, we had no choice now but to file our Amended Verified Complaint seeking judicial relief, including an amended preliminary injunction and an application for temporary restraining order because the City is threatening to enforce the new Ordinance against our client next Monday, February 6, when the law becomes effective."

Like the repealed ordinance, the revised ordinance continues to require pro-life centers to post negative signs simply because the centers speak to women about pregnancy. The ordinance effectively exempts abortion facilities from posting signs about services they do not offer because the law does not apply to facilities that have full-time doctors, even if those doctors aren't involved when abortion workers talk to women. Abortion centers are able to afford full-time doctors because they charge women fees, but pro-life centers often cannot afford full-time doctors because all of their services are free. Under the ordinance, pro-life centers that don't offer medical services must post negative signs even if the centers never claim they are medical. Pro-life centers like LifeCare that are under the direction of a licensed physician and have part-time licensed physicians performing or supervising ultrasounds and pregnancy testing must still post a sign declaring that the facility is not licensed to offer ultrasounds--even though there is no such thing as a facility license to perform ultrasounds, and, therefore, centers cannot obtain such licenses.
 
Casey concluded: "Ordinances of this type are neither needed, lawful nor appropriate for a City that ought to celebrate its citizens' state and constitutional freedoms nor for City officials who are sworn to uphold those freedoms. For the reasons we exhaustively explain in the Amended Verified Complaint we have just filed in the federal court, the challenged ordinance (Chapter 10-10) should never have been enacted.  This is simply the result of a private political organization misusing the power of government to attack a community service organization based on the political organization's ideas and speech.  The National Abortion Rights Action League ('NARAL') has long attacked pregnancy resource centers in NARAL's publications and bogus "investigations."  Not satisfied with the results of those efforts, NARAL worked closely with the City to develop these unconstitutional ordinances.  It is an abuse of governmental power and the legislative process to draft legislation to target one organization for the benefit of a political ally.  The abuse is particularly egregious when that attack is based on the target organization's ideas and speech. The new ordinance (Chapter 10-10) is deeply flawed.  It is not just another law prohibiting 'untrue and misleading' speech.  If it were, it would be unnecessary because those laws already exist.  It is instead a thinly-veiled imposition of unconstitutional 'government speech' and the restriction of the free speech of non-commercial organizations, like Austin LifeCare, with whom the proponents of the ordinance disagree.  The City had no real-world justification for its adoption -- only speculation and hyperbole disproved by the true facts presented to them they chose to ignore."

Austin Life Care and its attorneys will be available, along with Pam Cobern, outside the Austin Federal Court Building to answer questions from the media both before (until 8:30 am) and after the federal court hearing this Friday, February 1, 2012, at 9:00 am now scheduled to hold a status conference at which time Austin LifeCare's application for a temporary restraining order may also be considered by the Court.

** For the amended verified complaint with all of its exhibits, please click here (11 mB).

JUBILEE CAMPAIGN'S LAW OF LIFE PROJECT IS A PUBLIC INTEREST LEGAL ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO LEGALLY DEFENDING IN ALL LEGAL FORA THE RIGHT TO LIFE AND DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN BEING FROM BIOLOGICAL CONCEPTION UNTIL NATURAL DEATH IN ALL MATTERS WORLDWIDE, INCLUDING THE FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS OF PREGRANCY RESOURCE CENTERS AND HEALTHCARE RIGHT OF CONSCIENCE WHEREVER SUCH A DEFENSE IS REQUIRED.  JUBILEE CAMPAIGN IS AN INTERNATIONAL CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION THAT SEEKS TO BE A "VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS" PROMOTING THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF ALL, PARTICULARLY WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF ANY AGE IN COUNTRIES WHICH IMPRISON, TERRORIZE OR OTHERWISE OPPRESS THEM.