A Tennessee woman is appealing to the Tennessee Court of Appeals after a lower court refused to issue protection orders against four radical abortion militants for stalking her outside an abortion facility in Bristol, Tennessee. Thomas More Society attorneys filed their opening brief with the Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville, January 15, 2021, on behalf of the petitioner, Erika Schanzenbach.

The appeal asks the court to correct the Sullivan County Chancery Court’s refusal to grant Schanzenbach relief after erroneously concluding that protection orders were not “the proper avenue” for stopping the accused’s repeated and relentless harassment against her outside an abortion facility. According to the filing, the trial court ignored the plain terms of the law and the preponderance of undisputed evidence in finding that the abusive conduct did not cause Schanzenbach to feel “frightened, terrorized, threatened, harassed, intimidated, or molested.” The judge ruled that Schanzenbach did not prove she was distressed since she continues to witness to life outside the abortion facility—even though Schanzenbach testified that she persists only because of her sincerely held religious duty to speak up for the voiceless no matter her opposition.

The harassment and abuse for which Schanzenbach seeks redress occurred repeatedly outside the Bristol Regional Women’s Center abortion facility, where she serves as a peaceful pro-life advocate offering information on life affirming alternatives to abortion.

The named offenders are Denise Skeen, her adult daughters Alethea and Rowan Skeen, and Cheryl Hanzlik. The women, self-identified online as “Pro-Choice Bristol,” have boasted about their illegal treatment of Schanzenbach over social media.

The video footage supports Schanzenbach’s claims of abuse by the Skeens and Hanzlik. The court has been provided with evidence of the quartet’s misdeeds, which include directing lewd comments to Schanzenbach and hurling profanities, taunts, and obscene gestures directly in her face.

Other harassing behaviors involved licking Schanzenbach’s arms, blaring damaging noise at her face and ears, and making repeated unconsented close and invasive physical contact with Schanzenbach, including skin to skin, despite her emphatic requests to not do so. Additionally, the women repeatedly tailed Schanzenbach on the long walk back to her vehicle, repetitively shadowed her and invaded her personal space, and threateningly surrounded and boxed her in with large, open umbrellas.

“Tennessee law plainly states that any victim of stalking can obtain a protection order against a perpetrator of stalking regardless of their relationship,” explained Thomas More Society Counsel Michael McHale. “And the stalking statute expressly protects against being stalked—i.e., repeatedly followed, approached, accosted, etc., without consent—at places to which one frequently returns, such as one's workplace, residence, or any public place or private property such as a grocery store, church, or school. The trial court’s assumption that Erika’s courage to stand up for the unborn means she didn’t feel intimidation or fear is inconsistent with both law and common sense.”

“Additionally,” added Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Martin Cannon, who also represents Schanzenbach, “Erika testified that she changed the dates and times she appeared outside the abortion facility to try to avoid her assailants. Further, the court presumed to infer that Erika’s subdued ‘mannerisms’ in one video clip meant she did not experience the requisite distress in any of the numerous incidents documented on hours of video footage accepted into evidence–thereby, unbelievably, prejudicing Erika for her ability to remain calm in a fearful situation and unfairly extrapolating one incident to represent more than six months of repeated harassment.”

McHale and Cannon emphasized that Schanzenbach is a peaceful pro-life witness, and that her original lawsuit, filed in January 2020, along with petitions for protection orders, was a result of the physical harm and emotional distress that she has suffered at the hands of the members of this radical pro-abortion organization.

“These defendants have stepped beyond the limits of both civility and the law in their attempt to shut down pro-life speech. Erika Schanzenbach is peacefully exercising her First Amendment rights to speak against abortion and advocate for life-affirming alternatives,” remarked McHale. “The Skeens and Hanzlik have engaged in and bragged online about their abusive, threatening, and illegal conduct. Their so-named ‘Pink Manifesto’ states that they will ‘use any means necessary’ ‘whether legal or not’ to physically block pro-life witnesses. Their hostile and belligerent conduct cannot be allowed to continue unchecked. The court must protect Ms. Schanzenbach and hold these women accountable for their criminal actions.”

Read the opening brief filed January 15, 2021, by Thomas More Society attorneys with the Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville, on behalf of Erika Schanzenbach in Schanzenbach v. Alethea Skeen, et al., here.