US Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge to Mass

US Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge to Mass. abortion clinic
buffer zone law
The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider a challenge to the
Massachusetts abortion clinic buffer zone law.

The Supreme Court issued an order today granting a writ of certiorari
to the petitioners, who are objecting to the law that keeps abortion
protesters a set distance away from abortion clinics.

The high court's action comes after a federal appeals court in January
upheld the law, saying it protected the rights of patients while, at
the same time, allowing others to express their opinions.

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said in its ruling, "Few
subjects have proven more controversial in modern times than the issue
of abortion. ... The nation is sharply divided about the morality of
the practice and its place in a caring society. But the right of the
state to take reasonable steps to ensure the safe passage of persons
wishing to enter health care facilities cannot seriously be
questioned.

"The Massachusetts statute at issue here is a content-neutral,
narrowly tailored time-place-manner regulation that protects the
rights of prospective patients and clinic employees without offending
the First Amendment rights of others," said the opinion, written by
Judge Bruce M. Selya, who heard the case, along with two other judges.

The appeals court ruling affirmed a decision by US District Judge
Joseph L. Tauro in February 2012.

The law creates a 35-foot fixed buffer zone around the driveways and
entrances of clinics. The lawsuit, Eleanor McCullen et al v. Martha
Coakley et al, was brought by seven people who say they regularly
engaged in antiabortion counseling outside the three clinics.

The challenge to the law was the latest in a series. "This case does
not come to us as a stranger," the appeals court said, leading off its
decision.

The court twice upheld an earlier version of the law, in 2001 and
2004. After the Legislature revised the law in 2007, the appeals court
upheld it again in 2009. More challenges were launched in Tauro's
court. Tauro rejected them, but the plaintiffs appealed.

Massachusetts began moving toward a buffer zone law after the slayings
of two clinic workers in Brookline in 1994 shocked the nation. John C.
Salvi III, a 22-year-old abortion opponent, shot two clinic workers to
death and wounded several others. Salvi later committed suicide in
prison while serving two life sentences.
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