11th Circuit nixes protest buffer zone at Florida abortion clinic
ATLANTA (CN) — A divided panel of the 11th Circuit on Thursday sided with anti-abortion activists who say a Florida city’s vehicle safety ordinance created a protest-free zone at a women’s health clinic that violated their First Amendment rights.
In a 2-1 decision, the Atlanta-based appeals panel ordered a lower court to enter a preliminary injunction in favor of the pro-life nonprofit Florida Preborn Rescue and four of its “sidewalk counselors.” The order will block officials in the city of Clearwater, Florida, from enforcing an ordinance which created a five-foot “vehicular safety zone” around the driveway into the city’s only abortion clinic.
Writing on behalf of the majority, U.S. Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom ruled the ordinance “seriously burdens” Florida Preborn Rescue’s speech “by restricting the sidewalk counselors’ ability to distribute leaflets to patients as they arrive at the clinic.” The Donald Trump appointee wrote that the nonprofit is likely to succeed on the merits of its First Amendment challenge.
The Clearwater City Council passed the ordinance in 2023 in response to increasingly tense protests at the Bread and Roses Women’s Health Center after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The ordinance prohibits protesters from crossing the clinic’s driveway or the portion of sidewalk within five feet of the driveway.
https://www.courthousenews.com/11th-circuit-nixes-protest-buffer-zone-at-florida-abortion-clinic/