In Sisters for Life, Inc. v. Louisville-Jefferson County, KY Metro Government, (6th Cir., Dec. 21, 2022), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals held that an ordinance imposing a 10-foot buffer zone around the entrance of any healthcare facility abridges the free speech rights of pro-life groups and individuals who wish to hand out leaflets and speak with women entering abortion clinics. The court said in part:
Even though caselaw permits a city to enact access laws focused on abortion facilities, ... the County sought to advance its interests by imposing a buffer zone on all medical facilities in Louisville. And why? The record does not reveal access problems beyond EMW.... Yet the ordinance covers every single hospital, clinic, and dentist’s office in the area.... Because the County may not “burden substantially more speech than is necessary” to further the County’s order and access interests,..., and because the County has not made any showing that all medical facilities need this kind of regulation, the ordinance lacks any tailoring, to say nothing of narrow tailoring....
The second problem is that the County has not shown that it “seriously undertook to address” its concerns “with less intrusive tools.”... [T]he County offers no tenable... explanation why the first prohibition in the law—that no one shall “knowingly obstruct, detain, hinder, impede, or block another person’s entry to or exit from a healthcare facility,”... will not work.
