Mark Lee Dickson, a pro-life activist in Texas, is being sued by three pro-abortion organizations for referring to abortion groups as “criminal organizations” and abortion as “murder.”
Dickson is the director of Right to Life East Texas, an organization that has worked to declare various cities and towns in Texas as sanctuaries for the pre-born. The same abortion groups that are now suing him – the Lilith Fund, the Afiya Center, and the Texas Equal Access Fund – had previously worked with the ACLU of Texas and ACLU National to sue cities for banning abortion within their jurisdiction. This latest legal challenge comes after these groups were forced to withdraw their lawsuit against the Texas cities that declared themselves sanctuaries for the unborn.
The abortion groups have requested that Dickson retract or “clarify” his statements. A legal representative for the groups claimed in a formal letter to Dickson that he and Right to Life East Texas have made false and defamatory statements about these organizations. By labeling them “criminal organizations” and implying they are guilty of crimes under Texas law, the group’s legal representation seeks compensation for injuries to the group’s reputations and their litigation expenses.
“We think this is a great opportunity. We want to see this in the courts. We want to see this discussed because it gets to the heart of the issue: abortion is murder,” Dickson said in a statement to Live Action News, declaring his intentions to fight the lawsuit.
“I have no reason to retract anything that I said,” Dickson told the Longview News-Journal in an interview. “Abortion is the murder of innocent unborn human beings. The Lilith Fund and other abortion-aiding organizations all take part in the murder of innocent unborn human beings.”
