Why a US appeals court struck Pittsburgh’s abortion clinic bubble-buffer zone
Basically pro-aborts overreached. A bubble zone would have been fine. A buffer zone would have been fine. But not a bubble-buffer zone. From the Associated Press, November 2:
In a ruling issued Friday, the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals found the 2005 Pittsburgh ordinance unduly restricted protesters from passing out leaflets and participating in other forms of free speech. The Pittsburgh law bans protesters from standing within 15 feet of entrances but also makes them stand 8 feet from clients in a 100-foot buffer around entrances.…
The court found that either zone by itself could be legal. The US Supreme Court has already upheld a CO state law establishing a similar 100-foot zone and decisions by courts in FL and NY to ban protesters from within several feet of medical facility entrances.
But, combined, the appeals court found the zones violate the free speech rights of the protesters who find it difficult to hand leaflets to clinic clients….
David Cortman, the Alliance Defense Fund attorney who challenged the ordinance, said… the ruling was important because it struck down an effort to combine previously upheld restrictions and should keep other cities from trying to pass similar laws.
Sue Frietsche, of the Women’s Law Project in Pittsburgh, said the city has the option of keeping either of the zones, but not both under the court ruling.
[Photo via KFWB]
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