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 [1].
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.