There's a push in the Massachusetts Senate to move anti-abortion activists farther away from abortion clinics in that state.
Legislators are considering moving the "fixed buffer zone" to "a hard 35-foot perimeter around a clinic's entrances and driveways," reports the Associated Press.
Presently, according to the AP:
The existing law prohibits anyone within 18 feet of the entrance or driveway to an abortion clinic from approaching another person within 6 feet to hand out a leaflet or counsel that person without their consent.
So the free speech rights of pro-life protesters and sidewalk counselors who sometimes experience the joy of seeing tangible results of their efforts -- when a pregnant woman turns around and goes home or a mother returns to introduce them to her almost-aborted-baby -- are once again being threatened.
Still, those who spend time outside of abortion clinics trying to dissuade women from aborting their unborn infants are a resilent bunch. If this legislation passes, these right-to-lifers will adapt and adopt new methods of communicating their message.
Abortion advocates and their legislative partners will never chase folks who are totally committed to a child's right to be born away from abortion clinics, no matter how many ways they try. Never.
(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan
Crossposting with: http://www.mothermayibeborn.com
The abortion lobby won't be happy until there's a law mandating that anybody who so much as meets a pregnant woman must immediately offer her a brochure on the benefits of safe and legal abortion and offers to make an appointment for her and drive her to the mill.
Women will be required to sign cards stating that they've considered and rejected safe, legal abortion, and will be required to show these cards to police, first responders, and doctors. Any woman who can't produce such a card will have to go to the nearest family planning facility and be "counseled".
THEN maybe the abortion lobby will quit whining.
Those people make me sick.
Well put.
Still, don't lose heart, Christina.
The more the anti-abortion gang reveals itself and its extremism, the better. For regular folks outside of pro-life circles notice.