Why Abortion Clinics Need Buffer Zones ("You've only got to look to history") [View all]

Yesterday or the day before, a thread was bouncing around that included someone calling them-self a "free speech absolutist" who believes that buffer zones around Women's Health Clinics denied him his right to free speech. Providence (or coincidence) had this short and wonderful Think-Progress article appear on my news feed this morning which countered every point the poster had initially made.

Was the poster serious, or just a moderate-post-count troll? Hard to tell anymore. After seeing yesterday's thread about on-line dating, I've finally realized that even Democrats have serious issues with women-- seeing you as pieces in a game, or rationalizing the phrase "kneel, b**ch" as little more than romantic profiling. So I don't pretend to myself that only trolls on DU will pay lip service to the collective equlity, but deny it on a personal level. Enough lunchtime rambling... on with the article!

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Why Abortion Clinics Need Buffer Zones

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in a case that could ultimately determine whether women across the country can maintain safe access to abortion clinics. Depending how the justices rule on McCullen v. Coakley, cities and states may no longer be allowed to enact buffer zones around reproductive health care facilities — a policy that abortion providers say is critical for ensuring the safety of their patients and staff, since protests outside of clinics often turn violent.

Earlier this week, the New York Times and the Associated Press both profiled Eleanor McCullen, the 77-year-old plaintiff in the legal challenge who has become the face of the current Supreme Court battle. McCullen says that buffer zones violate her free speech rights, and points out that she’s hardly a threat to women entering health facilities. “I am 5 feet 1 inch tall,” McCullen said in a filed statement for the case. “My body type can be described as ‘plump.’ I am a mother and grandmother.”

“To characterize buffer zone laws as nothing more than an infringement on the rights of concerned, sweet little old ladies is to erase over 4,700 incidents of clinic violence and over 140 clinic blockades that have taken place since 1995,” Michelle Kinsey Bruns, a Virginia-based activist who’s done clinic escorting in eight different states, told ThinkProgress. “It’s a slap in the face to the victims of those attacks, and it puts others at risk for still more violence.”

“You don’t need to be a pro-choice feminist to believe that crowds of protesters outside of clinics make for a volatile situation. Even an anti-choice Catholic Archbishop can see it,” Kinsey Bruns pointed out. “And you don’t need to have a political agenda to believe that clinic protesters can be dangerous. You've only got to look to history.”


http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/15/3163761/abortion-clinics-need-buffer-zones/