Suit Challenges Massachusetts Law Creating Abortion Clinic Buffer Zones

Suit was filed in federal district court in Boston on Friday challenging Massachusetts' recently-enacted law (SB 1353) creating a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics. In McCullen v. Coakley (full text of complaint), a group of pro-life advocates who wish to talk with, and distribute literature to, women entering a Boston area Planned Parenthood clinic ask that the new law be declared unconstitutional on its face and as applied. Alliance Defense Fund, announcing the filing of the lawsuit, said: "It’s ironic that Massachusetts, the ‘cradle of liberty,’ would pass a law that effectively creates a First Amendment-free zone that silences those who seek to share the truth about abortion."