San Diego pro-lifer appeals buffer zone ruling to Ninth Circuit Court

A pro-life activist from San Diego has asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to declare a city buffer zone law limiting pro-life activity unconstitutional.

Key Takeaways:

• Long-time San Diego pro-life activist Roger Lopez sued the city of San Diego last year after it passed a buffer zone law prohibiting free speech within 100 feet of an abortion business.

• In March, a federal judge ruled in favor of the city and said that Lopez’s lawsuit had no standing.

• Lopez has now appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Backstory:

In June 2024, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria signed the buffer zone law, making it illegal for pro-life demonstrators to “approach within eight feet of a person in the public right-of-way or sidewalk area who is seeking to enter or exit” without the person’s consent.

The law also forbids the display of signs and forces speech within the zone to be “softer than normal conversation,” as it states, “No person shall make, or cause to be made, any disturbing, excessive, or offensive noise which causes discomfort or annoyance to any reasonable person of normal sensitivities.”

In September 2024, attorneys from Thomas More Society (TMS) filed a lawsuit against the city on behalf of Roger Lopez, who had been ministering in front of San Diego abortion facilities for 15 years.

In March 2025, U.S. District Judge Linda Lopez granted a motion from the City of San Diego to dismiss the lawsuit, ruling that Supreme Court precedent in Hill v. Colorado allowed the city to establish a buffer zone.

The Details:

On June 16, the Thomas More Society issued a press release announcing that Roger Lopez is now appealing the district judge’s ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. TMS contends that the city’s buffer zone discriminates against pro-lifers like Lopez and violates his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

“San Diego has created a constitutional travesty where Planned Parenthood employees can freely harass and pressure vulnerable women right up to the clinic door, but peaceful sidewalk counselors offering help and hope face criminal prosecution for normal conversation,” said Peter Breen, Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation at Thomas More Society.

"No One Leaves An Abortion Facility Empowered" | Lauren Muzyka

“The city has made sidewalk counseling virtually impossible, which violates both the rights of pro-life advocates to speak and women’s rights to receive life-saving information,” Breen added. “We will continue to defend Roger and pro-life advocates like him, protecting their right to serve pregnant women in need, and to put a permanent end to the ‘abortion distortion’ that has stripped so many Americans of their First Amendment rights in front of abortion facilities.”

Go Deeper:

Read more about the issues surrounding anti-pro-life speech zones outside abortion facilities around the globe at the links below.

Supreme Court declines to hear case to overturn ‘buffer zone’ precedent

Scientist found guilty of violating UK abortion ‘buffer zone’ by holding sign offering ‘to talk’

First abortion buffer zone arrest in Scotland is an elderly woman holding ‘silent vigil’

Pro-lifers challenge abortion facility ‘buffer zone’ law in Quebec

Pro-lifers claim victory for free speech after Minneapolis buffer zone lawsuit