Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 10, 2023 / 17:40 pm
The State of New York agreed to a court order that forbids officials from demanding private and sensitive information from Sisters of Life, a pro-life Catholic religious order.
Sisters of Life, which provides life-affirming counseling services and resources to women in crisis pregnancies, sued state officials in September 2022 over a law that allowed the Department of Health to investigate pro-life pregnancy centers by demanding internal documents and private information about the centers’ policies.
The court order, which New York officials signed on Wednesday, Nov. 8, states that officials are “ordered not to take any enforcement action of any kind against” Sisters of Life based on the religious order’s refusal to comply with “any survey, document request, or information request” authorized by the new law.
“[The Department of Health’s] authority to request data and information pursuant to the statute, and to take any enforcement action relating thereto, ends,” according to the order.