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A pro-life advocate who has been sidewalk counseling outside abortion facilities in San Diego for 15 years is fighting for the right to practice free speech inside “buffer zones” after a district court dismissed his lawsuit.
The Center Square reported June 19 that a district court recently dismissed Roger Lopez’s lawsuit that challenges San Diego’s “no speech zone” ordinance outside abortion facilities, prompting him to appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Represented by legal nonprofit Thomas More Society, Lopez argues that the ordinance creates a double standard and violates his First and 14th Amendment rights, Thomas More Society stated in a June 16 news release.
According to the opening brief, the ordinance restricts speech on public sidewalks within 100 feet of every health care facility, school ground, and place of worship in San Diego, but also imposes eight-foot “bubble zones” around people within the 100-foot zone. The ordinance also bans “disturbing, excessive, or offensive noise” and harassment within the 100-foot zone.
Thomas More Society stated in the release that employees and others affiliated with abortion facilities are exempted from the no-speech requirement and bubble zone, allowing them to approach and harass anyone. However, the same ordinance forbids pro-life advocates from peacefully offering a witness inside the buffer zone. Sidewalk counselors reportedly could be put in jail for up to six months if they violate the eight-foot bubble or offer a leaflet or hold a pro-life sign within 100 feet of the facility – because these actions could be deemed harassment.
“San Diego has created a constitutional travesty where Planned Parenthood employees can freely harass and pressure vulnerable women right up to the clinic door, but peaceful sidewalk counselors offering help and hope face criminal prosecution for normal conversation,” Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at Thomas More Society, stated in the release.
Breen also told The Center Square that the ordinance is “breathtaking in its sweep.”
“Essentially you can’t talk to anybody on sidewalks in a vast swath of the city of San Diego — all because they are trying to stop folks like Roger who offer assistance at the abortion clinics in the city,” he said.
According to The Center Square, Lopez and Thomas More Society say that the buffer zone rule not only restricts his free speech rights but also the right of pregnant women to hear pro-life counseling.
Lopez’s lawsuit additionally challenges Hill v. Colorado, a 25-year-old Supreme Court decision that allowed abortion clinics to maintain buffer zones.
