PORTLAND, ME – The city council of Portland, Maine has voted 7-to-1 to repeal a city ordinance that required a 39-foot “buffer zone” around abortion clinics, designed to keep pro-life activists away from abortion facilities and their clients.
The city council tossed the law in response to last month’s unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring a similar law in Massachusetts unconstitutional.
Portland’s buffer zone had been created by unanimous vote only last November, after Planned Parenthood – the city’s lone abortion clinic – claimed that pro-life activists were “harassing” their clientele by praying in front of the facility and speaking to women about alternatives to abortion.
In response, a group of pro-life protesters sued the city, claiming the buffer zone violated their free speech rights by preventing them from using public sidewalks and talking to women about abortion.
“All that this ordinance does is ensure that women entering the city’s abortion clinic only hear one voice in a moment of crisis, and that voice comes from Planned Parenthood — the largest abortion provider in America,” Thomas More Society attorney Erin Kuenzig, who represents the plaintiffs, said according to Bangor Daily News.
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Even though the city has now repealed the law, Kuenzig says her clients won’t be dropping their lawsuit. “I think it would signal to the City Council in considering any future legislation that might attempt to restrict First Amendment rights without considering any other alternatives that are available to it,” Kuenzig told Maine Public Radio.
Meanwhile, the city council has vowed to pursue new ways to force pro-life activists to keep their distance from the facility.
The buffer zone’s repeal is “a legal bump in the road,” Councilor Cheryl Leeman assured Planned Parenthood’s supporters at Monday night’s meeting. “Please know that we still have the same concerns and that we are not going to let go of this issue. We will just re-craft (the ordinance) so that hopefully it will pass legal muster.”