The buffer zone law in Massachusetts mandates that anti-choice protesters stay at least 35-feet away from the entrances to abortion clinics. In some cases the buffer zone starts at the parking lot entrance and extends 35 feet from there. Massachusetts clinics include Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts health centers in Springfield, Worcester, and Boston. As recently as January of this year, the supreme court upheld the law in court- however, it was announced in June that the supreme court would hear arguments that challenge the constitutionality of the buffer zone law.
The argument from the anti-choice side is largely based on their interpretation of the First Amendment- freedom of speech. In January, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law, saying it protects the rights of prospective patients and clinic employees "without offending the First Amendment rights of others." The court later announced plans to review the Massachusetts law which has already sustained a lengthy legal fight throughout its history. Enacted in 2007 the Massachusetts 35-foot buffer zone law changed the 2000 law, which provided for an 18 feet fixed buffer zone and six feet floating buffer zone. In 2000, the law was upheld based on the fact that while the first amendment guarantees the right to free speech, it does not compel that one has to be granted an audience. Thus, laws that allow people to have safe space to not be harassed are considered constitutional.
Anti-choice protesters argue that they are unfairly kept from speaking with or handing literature to individuals entering the clinics. They want to be able to approach the women entering these clinics and "counsel" them from making the wrong decisions. The assumption is that the people entering the clinic are doing so because they have been lied to or coerced in some way into thinking their only option is to terminate their pregnancy. The protesters in turn want to "save" these women.
So why is the buffer zone so important to uphold?
One obvious answer is that the buffer zone forces a physical separation between patients and protesters so that patients are not accosted while entering the clinics. Clinic employees can enter their workplace without being harassed. It allows women to exercise their legal right to obtain an abortion with some amount of dignity. Protesters can still be close to the clinics and carry out their sign holding, shouting, praying etc... It is a compromise that benefits both sides. The buffer zone doesn't go so far as to grant women their right to privacy but it does but a precedent into place that ensures (as much as possible) that they can safely enter the premises.
Anti-choice protesters are not all extremists; of course handing out rubber toy fetuses to anyone walking by is "extreme" to me but I wouldn't put it in the same category as anti-choice terrorists who are intent on bombing clinics and shooting clinic employees. Massachusetts knows anti-choice extremists very well. In 1994, 22 year-old John Silva entered the Planned Parenthood clinic in Brookline and opened fire. The receptionist on duty, 25 year-old Shannon Lowney, was killed. Salvi killed one other receptionist at a nearby clinic and in total wounded five others. He was convicted of the killings and later committed suicide in prison.
Anti-choice protesters are not all violent but the buffer zone provides some level of protection for the women legally entitled to their right to privacy when obtaining medical care. Which persons rights are being more violated? The individual with no business to conduct choosing to picket, protest and harass perfect strangers or the individual exercising their legal right to obtain a legal procedure? Not to mention that protestors are already violating the patients right to privacy by attempting to interfere in the first place.
In what other scenarios do individuals have to be subjected to harassment when receiving medical attention? Are there protestors outside of Hospitals? OBGYN's? Plastic Surgeons offices? No, the instance of abortion is one that is still so deeply stigmatized in our society that there MUST be laws such as the buffer zone in place to put at the VERY LEAST some physical distance between protestors and patients. Mind your own business anti-choice zealots- and if you really can't do that at least stay on the other side of the street.
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