SCOTUS: Good For The Goose, Not Good For The Gander
Protected by its own buffer zone, Sup. Ct. bans them at abortion clinics
Posted June 30, 2014 08:15 am | Op-Ed
By
Linda Cunningham
If you think anti-abortion activists swarming around clinics are sweet, helpful Good Samaritans, you’ve sniffed a snoot-full of cockamamie pixie dust.
Or you’re swooning over the perfectly coiffed spokesmen (and, why is it they are almost always men?) whose carefully modulated tones and messages reassure that protesters are simple caring folks handing out pamphlets and alternative wisdom. What a crock. Believe that and you’ve never driven past an active clinic protest.
Which is likely a safe bet with last week’s 9-0 decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. The court told Massachusetts that its 35-foot buffer zone between protesters and the clinic door is unconstitutional, an infringement of protesters’ First Amendment rights. Said decision was, of course, written and handed down inside SCOTUS’ own 24,696 square foot buffer zone, which they created back in 2012 because they didn’t want the court-protesting riffraff getting too close.
I am all for First Amendment rights and abortion is not my personal choice, but having said both those things, I’ve got to go with “what were they thinking”?
Buffer zones for highly confrontational demonstrations are effective crowd-management tools. Keep the Kluckers and the anti-Klan folks apart and let them yell obscenities across the neutral zones. Ditto war protesters. And, environmental activists and anti-nukkers. Squabbling 10-year-olds on the playground come to mind, too. Keep the combatants far enough apart and, well, most likely no one gets hurt.
The justices said Massachusetts could tame over-zealous abortion protesters with other laws on its books, but it would have to allow protesters open access to the clinic pathways. And, folks, that means a return to some mighty scary comings and goings.
The least of which will include textbook verbal assault: Signs waving across your walkway. Aggressive men (again with the man thing) shouldering close enough to (almost) touch while spewing lovely, life-affirming things like “murderer,” “whore” and “baby killer.” And, for sure, we’ll be seeing the sincerely dedicated chaining themselves to cars parked across the sidewalk or ramming said car through the clinic window.
I am old enough to remember back alley abortions and terrified young women with nowhere to turn and condemnation on all sides. I am old enough to remember scrounging up cash for a friend who disappeared in the night to an undisclosed location.
Almost 50 years later and we are once again saying it’s OK to terrify women with no alternatives. And, don’t hand me the platitudes about adoption and support for single mothers. If any of it were true, abortion protesters would be lining up to be adoptive parents and financial supporters of the pregnant mothers.
The Supreme Court says this is a First Amendment thing. I say it’s about mandating one more restriction on the way to making all abortions illegal once again.
But, OK, let’s stick with First Amendment. Prove it. Open the mall and get rid of your own buffer zone. Take down the barricades erected around federal buildings across the country to keep out the terrorists.
Which reminds me. Note to Massachusetts et al: Re-brand that buffer zone to be a homeland security measure to keep out the terrorists. And, note to Florida: What with our new stand-your-ground rules that allow for a warning shot, perhaps we could all be packing heat around the clinics.
Linda Grist Cunningham is proprietor of KeyWestWatch Media, a project management company in Key West. A journalist, executive editor and editorial page editor for more than 40 years, she moved to Key West in 2012. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
This piece was reprinted by the Columbia County Observer with permission or license.
