Buffer Zones and Abortion Protesting: Where Do We Draw the Line?
David Scott Gould, 2/9/2010 N.Y.L.J. 4, (col. 1) (2010)
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The issue of legalized abortion is, without doubt, one of the most politically charged and controversial issues of our day. Over the past 15 years, violence has proliferated not only at abortion and reproductive health clinics but upon the doctors who perform abortions and provide other reproductive services. Most recently, on May 31, 2009, Dr. George Tiller, the medical director of a woman’s health clinic in Wichita, Kan., was shot and killed by an anti-abortion activist inside his church. Dr. Tiller was one of the few doctors in the country who performed lateterm abortions. This article will discuss a woman’s constitutional right to obtain an abortion free from harassment and intimidation versus an abortion protester’s First Amendment right to free speech outside abortion clinics.
