The civil rights complaint filed by Maine’s attorney general against a Lisbon man who yelled during a Planned Parenthood protest is a violation of the First Amendment, according to a Christian legal organization.

Maine Attorney General Janet Mills announced Tuesday she had filed the complaint under the Maine Civil Rights Act against 26-year-old Brian Ingalls for violating the rights of patients at the Planned Parenthood health center on the second floor of a building at 443 Congress St. in Portland.

The complaint alleges that during a protest outside the building on Oct. 23, Ingalls was yelling toward the facility so loudly that his voice interfered with the delivery of health services. The Maine Civil Rights Act protects the right of any person to receive any sort of medical services without disruptions caused by loud noises, according to Mills.

Thomas More Law Center, a national public-interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Mich., said in a news release Wednesday it is defending Ingalls against the “unprecedented charge.” The center’s stated goals include defending and promoting “America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and moral values,” and says its “purpose is to be the sword and shield for people of faith.”  

The release states: “For reasons that can only be described as politically motivated, the attorney general has transformed an unverified noise complaint by Planned Parenthood into a civil rights complaint against a young Christian pro-life advocate.”

The story of the AG’s suit against Ingalls has been picked up by news agencies in the U.S. and beyond, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CBS News, BBC and Daily Mail.

Many include or reference a YouTube video taken over the summer in which Ingalls says from the sidewalk: “Walk out of the office. Come down, we want to talk to you. Don’t continue in your sin. Look to Jesus for forgiveness. … All you’re doing is running continually toward self-satisfaction, but all it’s doing is leading toward your death and leading toward the death of others.”

In its news release, the law center’s president and chief counsel Richard Thompson calls Mills’ actions “a blatant abuse of her powers to aid the pro-abortion political establishment dominating the city of Portland.”

Erin Kuenzig, the law center’s trial counsel, said Wednesday that Ingalls is a young father and a Christian, is college educated and a very kind person. She said his wife and baby go out and pray with him, and on Oct. 23 Ingalls was at the Planned Parenthood in downtown Portland, reading from the Bible, preaching and giving a message on Scripture.

“Planned Parenthood claimed that they could hear him inside, so they called the police,” she said. “The police came and asked him to be quieter and so Brian agreed and lowered his voice. After the police left, Planned Parenthood had called the police again and by the time the police came back, the Bible Scripture was done.”

Kuenzig said Ingalls has a sign that says, “Turn back we are here to help you,” and that he is about giving information and trying to spread his positive Gospel message and bring people toward Christ. He remembers he was speaking from Genesis on Oct. 23, she said.

In addition to the “Turn back” sign, Ingalls has been photographed with a “babies are murdered here.com” sign, as well as images of what appear to be fetus body parts with a “for sale” sign.

According to Kuenzig, Ingalls has never had any trouble with the police. They asked him to be quiet and he complied, she said. However, one of the problems with the complaint under the Maine Civil Rights Act is that there is no objective criteria being applied, such as a noise ordinance that sets forth sound decibels that can be measured.

The Thomas More Law Center is very interested in defending the rights of Christians and the First Amendment, Kuenzig said, “and this is a blatant violation of the First Amendment.”

The firm has been involved with the city of Portland before, and just won a case in federal court to keep the city from creating a 39-foot buffer zone around the Planned Parenthood facility entrances, exits and driveways, according to the release.

Kuenzig said the complaint against Ingalls “is really just a way for the Attorney General’s Office to try to circumvent the judgment the Thomas More Law Center had already won.”

She said there is nothing threatening or intimidating about what Ingalls does. The First Amendment protects all other rights we have, “so whether or not you agree with what someone is saying, you should support their right to say it. We have to have the right to speak our beliefs and defend our beliefs. It’s vital to the success of our country.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com

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