Pittsburgh abortion clinic buffer zone challenge is revived

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Pittsburgh abortion clinic buffer zone challenge is revived
By Jonathan Stempel
June 1, 2016

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived a challenge to a Pittsburgh ordinance that established a 15-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics in that city, to make it easier for patients to avoid protesters.

By a 3-0 vote, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said anti-abortion campaigners seeking to provide "sidewalk counseling" to women entering a Planned Parenthood facility in downtown Pittsburgh could pursue claims that the 2005 ordinance violates their free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution.

The Philadelphia-based appeals court had rejected a similar challenge in 2009, but said a different conclusion was now required after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014 unanimously struck down a Massachusetts law setting a 35-foot buffer zone.

"The speech at issue is core political speech entitled to the maximum protection afforded by the First Amendment," Circuit Judge Kent Jordan wrote. "The city cannot burden it without first trying, or at least demonstrating that it has seriously considered, substantially less restrictive alternatives that would achieve the city's legitimate, substantial, and content-neutral interests."


Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/pittsburgh-abortion-clinic-buffer-zone-challenge-revived-181856529.html?nhp=1

[KamaAina]

2. "sidewalk counseling"

I always thought that would make drug dealers "sidewalk pharmacists".

[bucolic_frolic]

3. So we can now offer impromptu sidewalk counseling to everyone on anything we like?

I just can't imagine being confronted by citizens who are trying to prevent
me from doing something legal and personal. Outta my face, give me my personal
space. Don't we even have that anymore?

If we all went to the supermarket to counsel consumers against buying, let's say,
chicken, because we think chopping off their heads is inhumane, we'd be in the local
jail cell pronto.

And I also can't imagine getting so worked up to be on one of these crusades.

Live and let live.

[Orrex]

4. I have friends locally who've been very active in this fight

If these anti-choice assholes were really just "counseling" women, it might tolerable, but there's no pretending here; they verbally assault women for exercising a basic human right.

Disgusting.

[rurallib]

5. These folks are allowed to harrass women going for medical procedures

while politicians have protestors shunted away in "free-speech" zones. Something doesn't add up

[Odin2005]

6. These people sound exactly like the GamerGate morons who think harassing...

...and threatening women is "free speech".