Louisville, Kentucky Stops Enforcing Law Banning People From Praying Outside Abortion Clinic

Life News ^ | 6/9/21 | Micaiah Bilger

[marshmallow]

Kentucky pro-life advocates won a legal victory this week against a Louisville buffer zone that restricts pro-life sidewalk counselors from reaching out to women outside the city’s only abortion facility.

The Louisville Metro Council narrowly passed the 10-foot buffer zone outside EMW Women’s Surgical Center in May. On Sunday, however, Sisters for Life and the Kentucky Right to Life Association sued the city, arguing that the ordinance unconstitutionally “squelch[es] dissenting speech,” WDRB reports.

Barely two days later, Kentucky Right to Life announced that the city agreed not to enforce the ordinance while the lawsuit moves forward.

“This is a new and good wrinkle in the usual sequence, when a pro-life law is passed and immediately enjoined by the ACLU and the abortion clinics. THIS time, a law esteemed by abortion advocates has passed, and pro-lifers sought and WON a temporary injunction,” said Addia Wuchner, executive director of the organization.

The lawsuit accuses the city of a “not-so-clever gerrymander to restrict an entire city block from being accessed” by pro-life advocates, according to the report. They said the ordinance “is an insidious content and viewpoint-based speech gerrymander, designed to squelch dissenting speech, and the practice of sincerely held religious beliefs, in the vicinity of EMW.”

Ernest Marshall, an abortionist and founder of the EMW facility, accused pro-lifers of “psychologically damaging” patients by blocking the entrance to the facility, harassing, taunting and stalking them.

[Rusty0604]

This is good news, thanks.

[Guenevere]

Excellent!

[Jamestown1630]

I’m not sure I understand this.

I live in a very liberal Eastern state. There are - and have always been - people praying outside of the local clinic, and I’ve never seen anyone bother them. (In the case of my neighborhood, the clinic is set a way off from the sidewalk/street, across a small parking lot.)

But if the clinic is very near the sidewalk and street, and people are interfered with as they pass or try to enter, I can see where that would present a problem for some.

[Marchmain]

If a prolifer on public property like a sidewalk talks to someone passing, that is their right and freedom of speech. However, if, as you say, the prolifer touches someone or somehow prevents their passing, that could be assault. Most prolifers are keenly aware of their constitutional and legal rights and the boundaries they must follow.

[nesnah]