Suit By Evangelical Family Challenges Abortion Clinic Buffer Zone

The Thomas More Law Center yesterday announced that it has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a Portland, Maine ordinance that creates a 39-foot buffer zone around reproductive health clinics to prevent protests and counseling on sidewalks near the city's single clinic that provides abortions. The complaint (full text) in Fitzgerald v. City of Portland, (D ME, filed 2/12/2014), alleges that plaintiffs, a family who identify themselves as Evangelicals, have been peacefully praying and counseling women outside the clinic for 16 months, passing out literature and Bible tracts. The ordinance prevents their activities. The suit claims that this is a broad, vague content-based prior restraint on their speech. A suit raising similar legal issues was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court last month. (See prior posting.)