[JURIST] Alliance Defending Attorneys (ADF) [advocacy website] filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] Thursday challenging [press release] a city of Pittsburgh ordinance [text, PDF] that creates numerous protest-free zones. The ordinance specifically states that one may not “knowingly congregate, patrol, picket or demonstrate in a zone extending 15 feet from any entrance to the hospital or health care facility,” including abortion clinics and other medical facilities. ADF and their supporters contend that the ordinance is specifically aimed at suppressing anti-abortion protesters who often picket outside clinics. ADF litigation counsel Elissa Graves stated, “Americans have the freedom to talk to whomever they please on public sidewalks,” and “[t]hat includes peaceful pro-lifers who just want to offer information and help to women who would like to know their options.”

The US Supreme Court [official website] struck down [JURIST report] a similar ordinance in June. In McCullen v. Coakley [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] the court ruled [opinion, PDF] that a Massachusetts law creating a 35-foot protester-free buffer zone around the entrance or driveway of an abortion clinic is unconstitutional. This ruling reversed a decision [JURIST report] by the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit [official website], which ruled that the Reproductive Heath Care Facilities Act was constitutional. In 2009 the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit [official website] struck down [JURIST report] a Pittsburgh ordinance that created a layered zone structure to prevent protesters from gathering outside abortion facilities. The ordinance created a “buffer zone,” preventing protesters from coming within 15 feet of the entrance of a medical facility, and also a “bubble zone,” which prevented protesters from coming closer than eight feet to individuals within a 100 foot radius around a facility.