Louisville abortion clinic buffer zone infringes on First Amendment rights, appeals court finds

close

Video

Pro-life centers targeted by 70% of abortion-related violent threats since Dobbs decision: FBI

FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing that since the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, 70% of abortion-related threats have been against pro-life centers.

A Louisville city ordinance that demarcated a buffer zone around abortion clinics has been temporarily struck down by a federal appeals court. 

The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals placed a temporary ban on the enforcement of the ordinance, citing First Amendment concerns. 

PRO-LIFE ACTIVIST ARRESTED FOR PRAYING SILENTLY NEAR AN ABORTION FACILITY

The lawsuit against the ordinance was brought by the Sisters for Life of Louisville, Kentucky. The group is a pro-life, religious ministry based in the city that regularly appears outside abortion clinics offering pro-life pregnancy consultation and literature.

"Sisters for Life, several individuals, and another pro-life organization wish to offer leaflets and compassionate, if sometimes unwelcome, speech to women entering abortion clinics in Louisville, Kentucky," the court wrote in its opinion. "But Louisville-Jefferson County limited their speaking and pamphleteering in buffer zones near the entrance of each clinic. Because these limits likely violate the First Amendment[…] we preliminarily enjoin them."

UK HIGH COURT RULES PRO-LIFE DEMONSTRATIONS CAN BE BANNED FROM PERIMETER OF ABORTION CLINICS

A pro-life demonstrator stands with his sign in front of EMW Women's Surgical Center, an abortion clinic, on May 8, 2021, in Louisville, Kentucky. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

The ordinance aimed to create a sizable distance between abortion clinics and would-be protesters by criminalizing demonstrations within the area. 

The appeals court voiced particular objection to the vague wording of the ordinance, which it said risked over-extending its intended purview.

TEXAS FEDERAL JUDGE RULES AGAINST HHS PROGRAM ALLOWING TEENS CONFIDENTIAL BIRTH CONTROL

"The County maintains that the ordinance creates buffer zones only when a facility requests painted lines outside its entrance. But that is not what the ordinance says. It applies always and everywhere there is a health care facility," the federal appeals court opinion reads.

Pro-life demonstrators and clinic escorts stand in front of the EMW Women's Surgical Center on May 8, 2021, in Louisville. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

It continues, "Nothing in the ordinance at any rate limits the scenarios in which a medical facility may ask for painted lines, and the First Amendment ‘does not leave us at the mercy of noblesse oblige.’"

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The Louisville Metro council passed the ordinance in May 2021, and it has been a subject of legal debate since.