ACLU Director: Recent Rulings Endanger Women’s Rights

The Harvard Crimson
ACLU Director: Recent Rulings Endanger Women’s Rights
By Jiwon Joung
Oct. 27, 2014, at 10:48 p.m.

American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts Executive Director Carol Rose discussed women’s rights on Monday, arguing that court case rulings have been unfavorable for women in recent years...

...One of the cases that Rose discussed concerned “buffer zones,” spaces in which protests are not legally allowed around abortion clinics in Massachusetts. In the past, it was illegal to protest within a 35-foot area around an abortion clinic in Massachusetts, which protected women who wanted to get abortions, Rose said. This law is similar to one that prevents panhandlers from approaching individuals near restaurants, banks, and other areas where money is exchanged, she noted.

According to Rose, however, the Massachusetts buffer zone law for abortion clinics was recently struck down by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which declared that the law was not useful since crowding around these clinics was “only a problem on Saturdays.”

Rose argued that working women only have time to go to the clinic on Saturdays, and that the failure of the Supreme Court to recognize this is indicative of how “out of touch” the Court is with the public. She added that some remarks made by justices were “paternalistic and misogynistic.”... MORE at http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/10/28/aclu-director-womens-rights/