Abortion foes get go-ahead to challenge clinic buffer zones

By The Associated Press

10.23.02

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BOSTON — A buffer zone around abortion clinics may violate the free-speech rights of anti-abortion activists by treating them differently than abortion-rights advocates, a federal judge has ruled.

In his decision yesterday, U.S. District Judge Edward Harrington allowed a legal challenge to state law to proceed. The lawsuit was brought by three anti-abortion "sidewalk counselors" who approach women outside clinics and seek to persuade them not to have abortions.

The Massachusetts law forbids anyone from coming within 6 feet of patients who are within 18 feet of a clinic entrance, unless the patient consents. But Harrington wrote in his nine-page decision that, in practice, anti-abortion activists are treated differently, which he said suggests "a possible pattern of favoritism toward pro-abortion speech within the restricted area."

He gave lawyers for the three plaintiffs and the Massachusetts Attorney General's office, which is defending the 2-year-old law, six months to gather evidence on how the statute is being enforced.

Last August, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the buffer-zone law.

Related

Expanded N.Y. abortion-clinic buffer zones struck down
Federal appeals court says judge went too far in extending protest-free zones outside two facilities.  11.27.01

Supreme Court backs restrictions on anti-abortion protests
But dissenting justice says 'decision is an unprecedented departure from this court's teachings respecting unpopular speech in public' areas.  06.28.00