Sidewalk advocates set to fight City of Harrisburg’s abortion ‘buffer zone’

(Liberty Counsel) Liberty Counsel will present oral argument to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on June 8 in Reilly v. City of Harrisburg regarding the city’s ordinance that was enforced to prohibit pro-life volunteers from one-on-one counseling near a Planned Parenthood abortion facility.

In 2012, the Harrisburg City Council passed an ordinance to curtail any interference with abortion facilities called “Interference with Access to Health Care Facilities.” Liberty Counsel’s reply brief to the Third Circuit states that the ordinance makes it illegal to enter the buffer zone and have a one-on-one conversation about abortion with a person entering the abortion clinic.

Liberty Counsel represents Colleen Reilly and Becky Biter, who engage in peaceful sidewalk counseling to encourage women to protect the life of their unborn children. The City of Harrisburg enforced the ordinance silencing Reilly and Biter on more than 70 feet of public sidewalk in front of the Harrisburg Planned Parenthood preventing them from quiet one-on-one conversations, peaceful sidewalk counseling, prayer, and distributing life-affirming literature.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The City of Harrisburg infringed on pro-life speech and violated the First Amendment when enforcing the ordinance to prohibit pro-life speech about abortion. The First Amendment has always provided the most robust protection to public places, such as sidewalks, so people can gather in the marketplace of ideas. The ordinance and the city’s enforcement actions are part of a calculated effort to appease Planned Parenthood and its preference to silence pro-life speech so it can abort unborn babies without opposition or conscience. Public sidewalks are not First Amendment free zones.”

Editor’s Note: This press release was originally published by Liberty Counsel.

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