Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick this week signed a bill expanding the clinic safety buffer zones in the state to 35 feet. The law, which went into effect immediately, expands on legislation from 2000 that established smaller safety buffer zones but was difficult to enforce, according to reproductive choice advocates.
Operation Rescue: Boston, an anti-abortion group that protests outside Boston clinics regularly, has threatened to challenge the law’s constitutionality, claiming that the safety zones violate freedom of speech, reports the Boston Globe.
However, Claudia Trevor-Wright, a Boston lawyer who done work for the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, told the Globe that she believes the law be found constitutional. She cited a US Supreme Court opinion upholding a 36-foot buffer zone around a specific clinic in a Florida case and a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court opinion in 2000 that found that a 25-foot fixed buffer zone was constitutional. funny pictures funny images funny photos funny animal pictures funny dog pictures funny cat pictures funny gifs
