Live Action refuses legal demand to stop saying abortion ‘kills’ unborn children 

The pro-life group Live Action has refused a legal demand to remove years of articles and stop acknowledging how abortion “kills” unborn children. 

Amplify Legal sent Live Action News and writer Nancy Flanders a cease-and-desist letter on July 15. The group represents 13 abortion advocates whose pregnancies have been mentioned in Live Action articles.

The letter accuses the outlet of making “false and defamatory” claims about the families, their unborn children and medical facts. It demands that Live Action delete articles and social media posts.

One demand says Live Action must say Wisconsin mother Megan Kling “did not have her baby killed.” Kling aborted her pregnancy after her unborn son received a grave diagnosis.

Amplify also objects to Live Action reports about Kate Cox and several women who challenged pro-life laws in court. The group says Live Action misstated fetal diagnoses, risks to the mothers and whether the abortions were medically necessary.

Thomas More Society lawyers answered for Live Action on Aug. 17. Their 14-page response begins with: “The answer is ‘No.’”

“Live Action will not cease reporting on abortion,” the response says.

Live Action says calling abortion killing is a moral view protected by the First Amendment. Its lawyers say an abortion ends the life of a living unborn child regardless of the reason given for it.

Live Action founder and president Lila Rose said the group won’t use softer words because of threats.

“Abortion is an act of killing. It deliberately ends the life of a living human child,” Rose said in a statement.

The response mentions a 2023 Texas Supreme Court case called Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity v. Dickson. In that case, the court ruled that strong language about abortion was “protected opinion about abortion law.” The court returned the dispute to the “battlefield of speech where it belongs.”

Thomas More Society also said the U.S. Supreme Court has used the word kill when describing an abortion method. Its response says no final American court decision has found that describing abortion as killing defames a woman who had one.

Amplify says its complaint goes beyond killing. Its letter focuses heavily on Live Action’s reports about Kling. Her unborn son had bilateral renal agenesis along with other health problems. Kling traveled to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and had labor induced at 22 weeks.

Live Action had written that Mayo researchers were studying treatment for children with the main diagnosis. Amplify says Kling’s child could not have survived and the study was no longer available to her. Live Action said Amplify mixed up two different trials. It says the study cited in its article was still listed as recruiting when the article ran.

The outlet also says the reports mentioned the child’s other health problems and never claimed the study would have saved him.

Amplify said Live Action had made claims about grieving families that were “both inaccurate and cruel,” according to Fox News. The group says Live Action never sought comments from the women or their doctors before publishing its articles.

Live Action says the 13 people became public advocates through lawsuits, campaign events or news interviews. Its response says the outlet will still review clear factual complaints backed by records. The organization says it will correct any proven errors through its normal process.

No lawsuit has been filed yet. Amplify told Fox it is “weighing all of their options.”

Live Action says it will seek legal fees and sanctions if Amplify brings what it views as a baseless lawsuit.