Pro-Life Counselors Continue To Challenge Abortion Buffer Zone

PHILADELPHIA, PA – Liberty Counsel filed an opening brief to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals against an ordinance that created unconstitutional buffer zones to silence pro-life speech on public property and sidewalks around abortion facilities in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Liberty Counsel represents Becky Biter and Colleen Reilly, who have regularly engaged in peaceful sidewalk counseling to encourage women to protect the life of their unborn child. Biter and Reilly have been harassed and intimidated by clinic staff and the local police since the ordinance passed. This ordinance pushes pro-life counselors sometimes 50 feet to more than 70 feet away and prohibits their freedom of speech, which includes peaceful one-on-one counseling and leafleting on the public sidewalk in front of the Harrisburg Planned Parenthood abortion facility. Pro-Life Counselors Continue to Challenge Abortion Buffer Zone Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The city of Harrisburg has a constitutional mandate to protect the free speech rights of all people in its jurisdiction, and it has no authority to discriminate on the basis of pro-life viewpoints. Public sidewalks and parks have always been protected as places where people can gather to participate in the marketplace of ideas. The city is appeasing Planned Parenthood by silencing all pro-life speech.”