The Road To Gilead Goes Through Kentucky, Con't

This week the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked Louisville's abortion clinic 10-foot buffer ordnance, saying it was a violation of the free speech of people harassing clinic patients, not that Kentucky has any these days.

 

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled in favor of blocking the enforcement of a Louisville ordinance that allows 10-foot-wide buffer zones outside health care facilities, including a local abortion clinic where protesters have often gathered.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supported a preliminary injunction because the buffer zone legislation's "limits likely violate the First Amendment" and instructed a U.S. district court to prevent the enforcement of the ordinance for now.

This is the latest decision in a court case filed last year by plaintiffs that include two anti-abortion groups, Sisters for Life and the Kentucky Right to Life Association. The case challenges a Louisville Metro Council ordinance passed in May 2021 that prohibits people from lingering in or obstructing a health care facility's buffer zone and from obstructing someone else's entrance to or exit from that facility.

Abortion access in Kentucky has been severely limited in the past six months. The procedure is banned, with exceptions only for life-threatening health risks, under state law following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last summer to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

A Kentucky Supreme Court ruling is expected anytime concerning whether to temporarily reinstate some abortion access while a separate lawsuit challenging two highly restrictive anti-abortion laws continues.

 

There's a very good chance that the case will end up before the Roberts Court in the fall, leading to the end of clinic buffer zones in all states, and giving the Gilead Chuds free reign to assault clinic personnel and patients even in states where abortion is still allowed.

 

I like how abortion clinics in Kentucky were all but regulated out of existence with nuisance health regulations, but a regulation to actually protect people at a health clinic from having their access physically blocked by raging assholes is a free speech and not a safety issue. 

And we get one step closer along the road.