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EXCLUSIVE: A prominent pro-life organization is refusing demands to remove years of abortion-related reporting and to issue sweeping retractions after attorneys representing 13 abortion-rights advocates accused it of publishing false and defamatory claims about their pregnancies.
“The answer is ‘No,’” attorneys for Live Action wrote in a fiery response obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital ahead of its public release Monday.
The Thomas More Society, representing Live Action, argues that much of the disputed coverage is constitutionally protected speech, including the organization’s use of terms such as “killing” to describe abortion, and signals that it is prepared to defend Live Action in court if the dispute escalates.
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“Live Action will not cease reporting on abortion,” the response says, rejecting demands to delete its archive, publish sweeping retractions or agree to restrictions on future coverage.
Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at Thomas More Society, told Fox News Digital that he believes the dispute raises a fundamental free-speech issue.
“The other side’s argument is that somehow, by using the word kill or calling abortion killing, that you have a problem that you can create that could then be remedied in court,” Breen said.
“The issue is every single final court decision to deal with this has previously said that’s not defamatory,” he added. “It’s not legally wrong to call abortion killing.”
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Amplify Legal’s July 15 cease-and-desist, however, alleges that the dispute goes beyond Live Action’s use of terms such as “killing.”
Amplify, which represents 13 people featured in Live Action coverage, accused the outlet of publishing false factual claims about their pregnancies, fetal diagnoses and medical circumstances and demanded that Live Action remove articles and social media posts and issue a public apology and retractions.
Amplify Legal responded Monday, telling Fox News Digital that its objections concern statements it says Live Action made about families facing wanted pregnancies.
“Live Action has repeatedly accused grieving families with wanted pregnancies of ‘wanting to kill’ their babies. These statements are both inaccurate and cruel,” Amplify Legal said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Asked whether Amplify intends to sue following Live Action’s rejection of its demands, the group stopped short of committing to litigation.
“As our clients’ lawyers, we will be weighing all of their options,” the statement said.
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Among the examples cited by Amplify is Kate Cox, a Texas woman who sought an abortion after her unborn child was diagnosed with Trisomy 18. Amplify says Live Action repeatedly disputed whether the diagnosis meant Cox’s daughter was certain to die.
Cox, whose case made national headlines after she asked the Texas Supreme Court for permission to obtain an abortion was denied and later left the state to have the procedure, was a guest of former first lady Jill Biden at the 2024 State of the Union Address.
Amplify further says Live Action failed to contact its clients or their medical providers for comment before publication.
“The lying, bullying, and complete disregard for the truth must end now,” Amplify Litigation Director Molly Duane said when announcing the demand in July. “What they are doing is not only cruel — it’s illegal.”
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Live Action’s attorneys dispute Amplify’s allegations, but say the organization remains willing to consider specific factual challenges through its normal editorial corrections process.
Courts have previously confronted similar rhetoric in the abortion debate.
In a 2023 case cited by the Thomas More Society, the Texas Supreme Court considered statements by an anti-abortion activist who characterized abortion-rights organizations as criminal and equated abortion with murder.
The court held that the challenged statements were “protected opinion about abortion law made in pursuit of changing that law,” placing them “at the heart of protected speech under the United States and Texas Constitutions.”
The court also cited a 1988 Illinois appellate decision, Van Duyn v. Smith, rejecting a defamation claim involving a poster that used the term “prenatal killing” to describe abortion.
Ilya Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, told Fox News Digital that he believes Amplify’s demand runs headlong into First Amendment protections for political debate.
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“Amplify Legal’s demand letter is legally frivolous activism,” Shapiro said. “One side says ‘abortion is murder.’ The other side says denying women the right to abortion takes us to a dystopian Handmaid’s Tale. These are opinions, and opinions by definition aren’t defamatory.”
Shapiro went further, arguing that describing an abortion as “killing” does not become defamatory merely because the terminology is fiercely disputed.
“In short, you can’t criminalize or make someone civilly liable for the standard give and take of heated political debate,” he said.
Lila Rose, Live Action founder and president, told Fox News Digital that the organization would not change its language in response to the threatened legal action.
“Abortion is an act of killing. It deliberately ends the life of a living human child,” Rose said. “Americans have every right to say that openly and forcefully, without fear of being dragged into court for refusing to adopt the deceptive language preferred by abortion activists.”
Rose said the organization would continue using such language regardless of the legal threat.
“Threats will not stop us from calling abortion what it is or from fighting for the right of every child to live,” she said. “We will keep fighting, and we will win.”
The letter warns that Live Action could seek attorneys’ fees and sanctions if a lawsuit is filed and directs Amplify and its clients to preserve potentially relevant records and communications.
Asked whether the Thomas More Society was effectively telling Amplify and its clients, “Go ahead, sue us,” Breen stopped short of inviting a lawsuit, but didn’t back away.
“Certainly, the courthouse door is open,” Breen told Fox News Digital.
Breen said the Thomas More Society does not want its clients dragged into litigation, but is confident in Live Action’s position.
“We’re not going to back down from that,” he said. “If it comes, we will be very, very well-prepared.”
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Amplify, for its part, told Fox News Digital that it is “weighing all of [its clients’] options.”
For Breen, the next move belongs to Amplify.
“The ball is in the other side’s court,” he said.
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