AG: Charleston's (West Virginia) abortion ordinance raises free speech concerns

WOWK 13 News ^ | June 6, 2019 | WOWK 13 News

[Morgana]

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WOWK/AP) — West Virginia's top prosecutor says Charleston's new ordinance to target protests at abortion clinics could run afoul of Constitutional law.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on Tuesday released a statement saying the ordinance is problematic because it targets free speech.

"We are analyzing it, we are seeing the nature of our state constitution and the breath of it, free speech protections and we are also urging the city council to take steps because they could do this better," says Morrisey

Charleston City Council voted 21-5 on Monday to approve restrictions on approaching people as they enter health care facilities. The law forbids people from blocking an entrance or exit and says protesters can't come within 8 feet of someone who is within 100 feet of a front entrance to advocate a message or provide pamphlets without the person's consent. City Council members say the ordinance was brought into place for safety purposes.

[\/\/ayne]

[sphinx]

The law forbids people from blocking an entrance or exit and says protesters can't come within 8 feet of someone who is within 100 feet of a front entrance to advocate a message or provide pamphlets without the person's consent.

We have a constitutional right to freedom of speech, the right to peaceably assemble, and the right to petition for a redress of grievances. Taken together, these add up to a rather sweeping right to protest. BUT: we do not have a right to harass others, to disrupt other people's events, or to interfere with them as they go about their normal activities.

The protest culture in America jumped these limits long ago. This probably started with the labor movement and picket lines. It escalated with the civil rights movement and, a short generation later, the antiwar movement. The left today spends a LOT of its time on aggressive, disruptive and harassing forms of protest.

It is utterly revealing (but hardly surprising) that the left now finds the protection of abortion a cause for which it will recognize a limit to protest.

That said, I'm generally ok with some, not all, of the types of restrictions on demonstrations being proposed in this legislation -- as long as they are applied equally to all forms of protest against all targets. No double standards. Protestors should not be allowed to block entrances or harass people coming and going. Speaking to someone quietly and respectfully, however, is not harassment. Nor is offering a pamphlet. These lines must be drawn carefully. Antiabortion protestors have exactly the same rights as do union members on picket lines or leftist demonstrators on a college campus who want to protest a speaker.