Maybe there should be a large crowd of women's rights activists on hand to protest as well because they also have free speech rights.

just not massachusetts' 35 foot buffer.

colorado's 8 foot buffer is presumably still ok.

in any event, escorts are needed so good on you for helping out!

Seriously, 8 feet is NOTHING. Does nothing to protect women who are trying to get health care.

i agree it hardly makes a difference as far as verbal harassment goes.

protesting *government* in particular is a key reason for the first amendment. their buffer zone is ridiculous, especially because there's no real safety concern that they can't reasonably address. their buffer zone is *all* about denying effective political speech.

But they would only do so if they possessed the same limited brain power and anger/hate as those protesting.

Opinion would turn drastically against both.

Let them run gauntlets to get into their bigoted and sexist organizations.

Well of course he does... when he and his fellows aren't busy filing lawsuits to deny contraception coverage.

http://www.usccb.org/news/2014/14-115.cfm
Cardinal O’Malley Welcomes Supreme Court Decision Affirming Freedom of Speech for Pro-Life Americans
June 26, 2014

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court upheld freedom of speech for pro-life Americans in a June 26 decision in the case of McCullen v. Coakley. The Court unanimously declared unconstitutional a Massachusetts law barring pro-life advocates from public sidewalks near abortion facilities. Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, issued the following statement.

“Today the Supreme Court found unconstitutional a Massachusetts law imposing criminal penalties on pro-life Americans who peacefully pray for and offer alternatives to pregnant women approaching abortion clinics. This discriminatory law barred these citizens from gathering on nearby public sidewalks, while exempting ‘clinic escorts’ trained to expedite women into the facility. Clearly this was an attack on pro-life Americans’ freedom of speech, and we welcome the Court’s decision to overturn the law.

“This now overturned legislation reflects an ominous trend in our society. Abortion supporters, having long denied that unborn children have a right to life, would deny that their fellow Americans who seek to protect the unborn have the same rights as other Americans – the right to freedom of speech and freedom of association; the right to participate in the public square and serve the vulnerable in accord with our moral convictions. Increasingly we see this trend evidenced at various levels of government. We are encouraged and pleased to know that with regard to this particular issue, our highest court has affirmed the American tradition of basic constitutional rights for all.”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops had joined with other religious groups in a “friend of the court” brief urging this result. The brief can be found online:
www.usccb.org/about/general-counsel/amicus-briefs/upload/cls-amicus-brief-filed.pdf

and sexual predators.

Is relocating clinics to more ideal and secure locations.

The whole issue was what takes place on public spaces.

The best, most permanent solution is to locate clinics on parcels of land where they an be setback from the road and sidewalk, with privately owned parking and a fence for privacy.

Fighting to control the actions of others in a public space will be a never ending, very costly legal battle.

But if you own all the space around you, you control what happens on it 100%.

More than anything helping these clinics move to more easily secured locations is what is needed. Instead of playing a. Never ending game of cat and mouse with these people have clinics where people can drive in and park out of sight and earshot of these loons.

That's the only practical, long term fix.

relocate and rebuild the clinics must face zoning issues and other permitting. Any local government opposed to the clinics can strangle the relocation by red tape and zoning challenges.

There is no way that a municipality could have regulations applying only to abortion providers, so it would have to be zoned medical.

Nobody needs to know who the end user will be when the property owner gets it zoned for medical.

Even if this is the worst case, far better to fight a zoning board once and win than face a constant barrage of these idiots.

on I would have to disagree with your statement that it's "pretty easily mitigated". And in most communities aside from a city the use is going to be well-known long before any application is made.

you are right, there is no reasoning with enraptured zealots who hear voices in their empty heads, or who have pastors and bishops whisper the propaganda into said minds.

Sadly I don't live in DC or I'd be 35 feet from the Supreme Court's door protesting.
Hopefully a large contingent of protesters can be organized to make very real their hypocrisy. They cannot, in good conscience, enforce their own buffer zone any longer.

and lets start protesting outside their doors on Sunday mornings and see how that goes. How long could we link arms and bar people access before the police showed up and started hosing us down with pepper spray? How many preachers could we shove into moving cares without being arrested for assault? How long could we hold up signs and scream hatred at them before one of us was shot by a "good christian" who was just "standing his ground"?

Eleanor McCullen, I do not care about your age. I do not care what self justification you've made up in the name of your made up god. You are a lump of filth and I hope that I'm wrong about the existence of an afterlife, because people like you deserve the fire.

I haven't been this mad in a long time, and I'm not looking forward to the ruling about Hobby Lobby.

Here's their website http://www.stmarysgrafton.org

And their phone number (508) 839-3993

I do not advocate harassment, but if they want to protest, then by golly we can protest them.

but I'm also a radical leftist anti-theist.

Funding evangelical "charities" = funding violence against gays.

the continued genocide against transgender people.

The 8 foot "bubble" law in Colorado will stand, at least for now. I'm not able to physically help them and have little money but anything you can give to NARAL, Planned Parenthood, or other worthy groups working hard to protect a woman's right to choose for her own life, will help.
We also need to keep pointing out that if the right-to-lifers really want to decrease abortions, contraception (being attacked as in the Hobby Lobby case) does this better than harassment of women seeking health care. And the money and time they spend could be better used to help the thousands of children they say they have "saved" have food, health care, and education.