Anti-Abortion Group Sues To Close Detroit's ‘Buffer Zone’ Around Clinics

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 03/20/2024) An anti-abortion advocate filed a lawsuit to close the 15-foot “buffer zone” between himself and “every patient and companion within a 100-foot radius” around a clinic’s entrance.

Chicago-based attorney B. Tyler Brooks, of the Thomas More Society, alleges Detroit Ordinance No. 2024-15, which carries criminal penalties, violates the constitutional rights of the Texas-based nonprofit Sidewalk Advocates for Life and retired Michigan attorney Kevin Hammer.

“Plaintiffs are peaceful sidewalk advocates who offer loving, life-affirming alternatives to women approaching the Scotsdale Women’s Center in Detroit,” the court filing reads. “. . . Their speech is quiet, prayerful and nonconfrontational . . .

“The Ordinance chills Mr. Hammer’s protected expression in specific and concrete ways,” the complaint reads.

The lawsuit claims Hammer stands on a public sidewalk along West 7 Mile Road holding a sign that reads “Ask Me About Free Ultrasounds and Pregnancy Tests.” The city’s buffer zone, however, prevents him from closing the gap between 7 Mile Road and the clinic entrance – across a major four-lane road – for more “one-on-one, personal communication.”

The city council passed the ordinance, introduced by Council member Gabriela Santiago-Romero, 7-1, and it prohibits someone from standing “within a 100-foot radius of any entrance door to a healthcare facility” and from approaching within 8 feet “of another person for the purpose of passing a leaflet or handbill” or sign to someone without consent.

It also creates a 15-foot buffer zone “of any entrance to the healthcare facility.”

Hammer’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Michigan’s Eastern District, seeks a declaratory judgment that the ordinance violates free speech, free exercise, freedom of assembly and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

Brooks argues in the lawsuit that one buffer might be allowed, but not two, and because Detroit’s ordinance intertwines two buffer zones, it fails, as evidenced in the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision related to “substantially identical” ordinance in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Sidewalk Advocates is a nonprofit organization founded in 2014 with a mission to “train, equip, and support communities across the United States and the world in sidewalk advocacy,” including presenting alternatives to abortion.