Florida High Court OKs Limits on Abortion Protests
The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that it is legal to restrict the access of protesters to an abortion clinic even if it limits their constitutional right to free speech.
The unanimous decision acknowledged protesters’ rights to free speech but said: “Nonetheless, even protected speech is not equally permissible in all places and at all times.”
The case arose following a series of protests held outside the Aware Women Center in Melbourne, a town in central Florida. A state judge imposed a 36-foot buffer zone around the clinic, and at the homes of clinic workers.
More than 100 protesters were arrested last spring for praying, chanting, singing and carrying pictures of aborted fetuses across the street from the clinic.
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