Christian Group Sues Greensboro and Guilford County Over Abortion Foe Arrests

A conservative Christian nonprofit group is suing Guilford County and the City of Greensboro. This comes after four abortion protesters were charged under the city's stay-at-home order.

The federal lawsuit was filed by Alliance Defending Freedom. The group argues that four anti-abortion protesters were arrested “for engaging in peaceful prayer outside an abortion facility.”

But police say the four were charged because they were violating local and state orders that require people to stay home except for essential activities and prohibit gatherings in large groups.

The News & Record reports that Alliance Defending Freedom is seeking to stop the stay-at-home order from being enforced on the grounds that the protesters were engaged in constitutionally protected activities.

A separate federal lawsuit was filed last week against Mayor Nancy Vaughan and Greensboro Police Lt. Dan Knott. That suit, filed on behalf of four other anti-abortion protesters, claims that city officers threatened to arrest them for violating COVID-19 rules.

Greensboro City Attorney Chuck Watts has defended those arrests, saying that protesters traveling from Davie County to Greensboro posed health risks to the people they encountered.  

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