THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200047
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 70 lines
In a victory for abortion protesters, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that those demonstrators have a free-speech right to confront pregnant women on the sidewalks outside clinics and to strongly urge them not to go ahead with the procedure.
The 8-1 decision calls into doubt a wave of new city ordinances and judges' orders that have barred persistent protesters from confronting and harassing doctors, nurses and patients outside clinics. It also may threaten laws that go too far in prohibiting panhandlers from confronting pedestrians and asking them for money.
However, the court also upheld a lower court's order keeping demonstrators at least 15 feet away from the doorways and driveways of clinics. The court rejected the argument that the order violated the free-speech rights of anti-abortion protesters.
These so-called ``fixed buffer zones'' are sometimes needed so that patients and staff can enter or exit embattled clinics, the Supreme Court said in a Florida case known as Madsen vs. Women's Health Clinic.
By a 6-3 vote, the court restated that view Wednesday, and upheld a judge's order imposing a 15-foot protest-free zone at the doors of abortion clinics in Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y.
But more importantly, the justices refused to extend that notion to allow a 15-foot ``floating bubble zone'' around patients and staff on the sidewalks approaching the clinics.
There is no ``generalized right to be left alone on a public street or sidewalk,'' Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said. Rather, picketing, leafleting and loud protesting ``are classic forms of speech that lie at the heart of the First Amendment,'' he said.
Certainly, sidewalk protesters have no right to grab, push or stand in the way of people heading to an abortion clinic, the court said, nor may they trespass on its property. However, they do have a right to shout and chant and confront people on public property, the justices added.
The Rev. Paul Schenck of Virginia Beach, an anti-abortion leader who appealed the case to the Supreme Court, called the decision ``a victory for all people of conscience who object to the wanton killing of innocent human beings.''
Schenck, 38, is director of the American Center for Law and Justice, the legal-advocacy group established by Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network.
On the other side, several abortion-rights advocates put the best face on a disappointing decision. They stressed that the court had again upheld ``fixed zones'' that keep protesters from badgering people entering abortion facilities.
They also noted that the Supreme Court's opinion leaves open the possibility that further protective measures would be allowed if they were shown to be needed in a specific case.
``While we respect the high court's decision, we reiterate that opposition to abortion is not a license to threaten, harass or intimidate doctors and women,'' said Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Los Angeles Times and
The New York Times. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
The Rev. Paul Schenck, a Beach resident, had a personal stake in the
case about abortion rights protesters. Story, A6.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SUPREME COURT RULING ABORTION CLINIC
DEMONSTRATIONS PROTESTERS <