High court declines challenge to abortion clinic buffer zones

[struggle4progress]

WASHINGTON— The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by anti-abortion protesters who challenged a Massachusetts law creating a "buffer zone" around abortion clinics.

Without comment, justices let stand a lower court ruling upholding the state law that was passed after the 1994 fatal shooting of two abortion clinic workers. Anti-abortion groups said the state-mandated zones had unfairly become places where only abortion rights rhetoric is permitted.

Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly applauded the decision, saying the state's buffer zone law was intended to protect a woman's right to medical care "free from intimidation and harassment." <snip>

The law, which creates a six-foot buffer zone around patients within an 18-foot radius of a clinic entrance, prohibits anyone from approaching without their consent for the purpose of passing leaflets or "engaging in oral protest, education or counseling." <snip>

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050418/APN/504180888

[Jade Fox]

1. Good. n/t

[UCLA Dem]

2. awesome

[uppityperson]

3. Good for them. Keep it up. No domestic terrorism allowed

[Endangered Specie]

4. you have to wonder...

if a largely republican appointed court makes these decisions, what would a democratic court be like? :crazy: :)