Anti-abortion group files lawsuit against Raleigh

RALEIGH -- An anti-abortion group has filed a federal lawsuit against the city after the Raleigh City Council rejected its request to conduct operations out of its property next to an abortion clinic.

A Hand of Hope Pregnancy Resource Center filed the lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

In the lawsuit, A Hand of Hope, a not-for-profit religious group that encourages pregnant women to pursue alternatives to abortion, claims the city violated the first and fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution by denying it the right to free speech, religion and equal treatment under the law.

In July, the City Council voted against A Hand of Hope’s request to move into its property on Jones Franklin Road next to Preferred Women’s Health Center, which offers abortion services.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article96400027.html