Judge Sides With NAACP’s Attempt to Silence Black Pro-Lifer

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 28, 2014   |   2:45PM   |   Washington, DC

A judge has issued a ruling in the NAACP lawsuit against a black pro-life leader who exposed its pro-abortion views in an article appearing at LifeNews.com.

In February, the NAACP threatened to sue LifeNews.com and Ryan Bomberger, a LifeNews blogger , for a column that took the civil rights organization to task over its abortion position. The NAACP is upset about a column Bomberger wrote at LifeNews titled, “NAACP: National Association for the Abortion of Colored People,” which notes the organization’s 44th Annual Image Awards.

ryanbomberger23Following the piece, the NAACP sent Bomberger, the director of the Radiance Foundation, and LifeNews a threatening letter claiming infringement on its name and logo for including it in the opinion column. The letter accuses Bomberger (left) and his group, the Radiance Foundation, of “trademark infringement” over an ad campaign that exposes the NAACP’s pro-abortion position.

Stating that while “you are certainly entitled to express your viewpoint, you cannot do so in connection with a name that infringes on the NAACP’s rights,” the letter demands a response within a self-imposed time period.

In response to the letter, Bomberger asked a federal court to declare that the First Amendment protects his and the Radiance Foundation’s exercise of free speech and that his speech does not infringe on any of the NAACP’s trademarks or other rights. The lawsuit does not seek any damages.

In its countersuit, the NAACP’s counterclaim denies that the NAACP is pro-­-abortion or has even taken a position on the issue.

Bomberger, who is represented by pro-life attorneys with the Alliance Defending Freedom legal group, has now received the ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Jackson has issued a ruling.

Judge Jackson has ruled in favor of the NAACP, denying Bomberger’s right to comment upon, satirize, or criticize the NAACP’s documented pro-abortion actions by (in part) parodying their name. This ruling is a frightening attack on his First Amendment rights or others who want to comment on the NAACP’s pro-abortion position.

In Judge Jackson’s 52-page ruling, despite voluminous evidence to the contrary (including the NAACP’s own unambiguous 2004 Resolution supporting the “right to choose” abortion), asserts that: ‘The NAACP has no formal or official position or policy regarding abortion because such a position may create problems within its diverse membership and constituency, who embrace a wide range of views on the controversial issue of abortion.” Judge Jackson uses this as the basis to strengthen the NAACP’s trademark infringement and dilution claims.

naacp4Despite the fact the LifeNews article in question simply parodied the NAACP’s name, criticized the organization’s documented pro-abortion actions, and used the NAACP’s unaltered logo to identify the civil rights group the judge refused to dismiss the case as a First Amendment issue.

Although the NAACP took offense at the article, Bomberger has frequently spoken out about the NAACP’s pro-abortion stance and its ignoring how abortion disproportionately targets black unborn children. The NAACP recently came under fire for opposing a bill to ban abortions based on race.

“The damage done is the loss of over 15 million black lives to abortion,” Bomberger, an adoptee and adoptive father., told LifeNews previously before the ruling. “How can the NAACP possibly claim neutrality over the abortion issue if they’re financially profiting from annual sponsorship from the nation’s largest abortion chain?”

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Bomberger has previously pointed out that the NAACP’s website reveals that Planned Parenthood, the nation’s biggest abortion business, has been a corporate sponsor of the NAACP’s Annual Convention for years.

Before the ruling, Bomberger told LifeNews the NAACP has not acknowledged that more black babies are aborted in New York City, the home of Planned Parenthood, than are born alive. Instead, NAACP NY State Conference and NAACP Syracuse/Onondaga supported an alarming bill (championed by NY Governor Andrew Cuomo) called the “Reproductive Health Act” (RHA). This abortion bill would have removed abortion language entirely from the state’s homicide criminal codes, allowing abortions through the entire pregnancy and declaring abortion a “human right” thereby stripping any current or future attempts at regulating abortion clinics.

He said the case of Kermit Gosnell reveals what happens when regulations are not enforced. NAACP joins a massive coalition of radical pro-­-abortion groups including NARAL Pro-­-Choice New York, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Ms. Foundation and Planned Parenthood in opposing the kind of regulations that could have stopped Gosnell.

Despite the NAACP suit, Bomberger says the Radiance Foundation’s www.TooManyAborted.com abortion awareness campaign will continue to expose failed leadership in the black community on the issue of abortion.

Abortion alone has taken the lives of over 16 million black children. For every 100 live births in the African American community, another 77 are aborted.

African-American teenage abortion rates are more than twice as high as the national average, according to a new study. The African-American abortion rate, according to the study conducted by the Guttmacher Institute, is 41 per 1,000 women among the 15-19 year old age group. The national average abortion rate is 18 per 1,000 women among 15-19-year-olds.

Alliance Defending Freedom allied attorney Charles M. Allen with the Glen Allen, Va. firm Goodman, Allen & Filetti PLLC is defending Bomberger and Radiance in U.S. District Court in The Radiance Foundation v. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division.