by Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) – In a June 26 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that 35-foot buffer zones around abortion clinics – meant to keep demonstrators away – violates First Amendment rights.
The decision, a victory for pro-life groups, reversed an appellate court decision upholding a 2007 Massachusetts law that made it a crime for anyone other than clinic workers to stand within the yellow semicircular lines painted 35 feet from entrances of Planned Parenthood clinics in Boston, Springfield and Worcester.
Eleanor McCullen, lead plaintiff in the case, McCullen v. Coakley, said she should be able to speak and offer advice to women going to these clinics. McCullen, a 77-year-old who attends Mass at St. Ignatius Church at Boston College, said when the case was brought to the Supreme Court that she had helped many women decide against abortion.
The Supreme Court, in its opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, said the state law blocked public sidewalks that have been traditionally viewed as open for free speech. It also said the government’s ability to limit speech in those places is “very limited.”
The law in question was put in place in an attempt to prevent violent demonstrations or protests outside clinic entrances. It replaced a 2000 state law that kept protesters from approaching within six feet of a person who was within 18 feet of an abortion clinic – similar to a 2000 law in Colorado that the Supreme Court upheld that year.
The Supreme Court’s opinion distinguished protesters from those who “seek not merely to express their opposition to abortion, but to engage in personal, caring, consensual conversations with women about various alternatives.”
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld freedom of speech for pro-life Americans in a June 26 decision in the case of McCullen v. Coakley. The Court unanimously declared unconstitutional a Massachusetts law barring pro-life advocates from public sidewalks near abortion facilities.
The court’s decision “has affirmed the American tradition of basic constitutional rights for all,” said Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
He said that the now-overturned legislation “reflects an ominous trend in our society” because it reveals how abortion supporters seek to deny Americans who “seek to protect the unborn” their right to freedom of speech and association as well as the “right to participate in the public square and serve the vulnerable in accord with our moral convictions.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had joined with other religious groups in filing an amicus, or friend of the court, brief for this case.
Tom Brejcha, president of the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based law firm, used the words “fantastic, wonderful” and “great achievement” to describe the court’s decision.
