Fourteen states and several pro-life groups in the US have joined a lawsuit urging the nation’s Supreme Court to overrule laws restricting free speech near abortion clinics.

According to the states’ brief, the laws have “dire consequences” by allowing the government to “cut off speech on a hotly contested moral and political issue” outside an abortion clinic “where a pregnant woman makes a life-altering decision for both herself and her child.”

The case revolves around Debra Vitagliano, a Catholic mother of three who is suing a New York county for barring pro-lifers from counselling women and offering them alternatives to abortion within 100 feet of a clinic, including footpaths.

“I want to offer abortion-vulnerable women a message of hope and compassion, letting them know that they are loved and can keep their babies,” Vitagliano said in an Aug. 25 press release.

The Westchester County law, called a “bubble” or “buffer” zone law, imposes misdemeanour penalties of up to $5,000 and a year in jail for pro-lifers attempting to counsel women outside abortion clinics.