Court rules against Louisville law allowing buffer zones outside abortion clinics

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled in favor of blocking the enforcement of a Louisville ordinance that allows 10-foot-wide buffer zones outside health care facilities, including a local abortion clinic where protesters have often gathered.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supported a preliminary injunction because the buffer zone legislation's "limits likely violate the First Amendment" and instructed a U.S. district court to prevent the enforcement of the ordinance for now.

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This is the latest decision in a court case filed last year by plaintiffs that include two anti-abortion groups, Sisters for Life and the Kentucky Right to Life Association. The case challenges a Louisville Metro Council ordinance passed in May 2021 that prohibits people from lingering in or obstructing a health care facility's buffer zone and from obstructing someone else's entrance to or exit from that facility.

Abortion access in Kentucky has been severely limited in the past six months. The procedure is banned, with exceptions only for life-threatening health risks, under state law following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last summer to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

A Kentucky Supreme Court ruling is expected anytime concerning whether to temporarily reinstate some abortion access while a separate lawsuit challenging two highly restrictive anti-abortion laws continues.

EMW Women's Surgical Center, a longtime abortion provider in downtown Louisville, supported the establishment of a buffer zone last year. It had raised concerns about abortion protesters (including self-proclaimed "sidewalk counselors") gathering outside the clinic to urge patients, as they arrive or leave, not to get an abortion.

The clinic's operators sought action from local officials due to instances where protesters followed patients to the door, touched or grabbed them or attempted to block them from entering the building.

In September 2021, a U.S. district judge decided to at least temporarily permit the city-approved buffer zone ordinance to take effect while the lawsuit proceeded. Now, however, the appeals court has decided that should be paused.

“Kentucky Right to Life, Sisters for Life and all those who serve in ministry of life are extremely appreciative of the opinion handed down," Addia Wuchner, executive director of the Kentucky Right to Life Association, said in an email.

"After more than a year of an imposed restriction on the ministry of sidewalk counseling that is offered to women as they entered and departed the EMW Abortion Clinic in Louisville, the Court affirmed the impact the City of Louisville’s imposed Buffer Zone Ordinance had on free speech."

In its ruling, the appeals court said Louisville government argued the buffer zone "facilitates safe, unimpeded access to abortion facilities and prohibits obstruction of them." The court discussed whether the ordinance's prohibition on obstructing access to health care facilities could sufficiently achieve its aims without the added buffer zone, and also suggested alternative ways to try to address certain protesters' harassment of patients.

The court's ruling describes the plaintiffs as wanting "to offer leaflets and compassionate, if sometimes unwelcome, speech to women entering abortion clinics in Louisville" and says the government's ordinance "limited their speaking and pamphleteering" in buffer zones, which the court said likely violates their free-speech rights.

The court's opinion said the buffer zone "took a 'toll' on the speech of sidewalk counselors."

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Angela Minter, a plaintiff in the lawsuit along with the organization she leads, Sisters for Life, was charged with criminal trespass after she allegedly passed by "No Trespassing" signs in 2019 to follow a patient inside the EMW clinic through a secure entryway where patients are admitted to the locked facility. She pleaded not guilty.

In Wednesday's opinion, the appeals court said the plaintiffs' goal "is not to harass or protest, whether loudly or violently," but to "offer a compassionate ear," and suggested it's unclear why Louisville "has sought to suppress their speech along with those types of protests that are far more likely to hinder access to a clinic and are sometimes designed to do just that."

Reach reporter Morgan Watkins at mwatkins@courierjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter: @morganwatkins26.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Court: Buffer zone outside Louisville abortion clinic likely illegal