Photo: Wendy Maeda via Boston Globe
We are pleased to let you know that the 3rd Circuit has upheld a lower court ruling refusing to preliminarily enjoin the City of Harrisburg’s statutory buffer zone despite anti-abortion activists’ ongoing attempts to knock it down.
Two of the few continuously-enforced statutory buffer zones in the country remain in effect in Pennsylvania: one in Pittsburgh, and one in Harrisburg. Anti-abortion activists have repeatedly attempted to eliminate both buffer zones amid a stark rise in anti-abortion harassment and violence.
According to the most recent Violence and Disruption Statistics report, the United States is experiencing a disturbing escalation of intimidation tactics, clinics invasions, and other activities aimed at disrupting services, harassing providers, and blocking women’s access to abortion care.
Menacing anti-abortion activities include sending death threats against doctors, bomb threats, and other forms of harassment and violence. The situation is so dangerous that the FBI issued a special report warning of the dangers of anti-abortion violence last year. From the report:
“Actors motivated by pro-life extremist beliefs have historically and continue to perpetrate the most lethal attacks, and have committed the majority of non-violent criminal violations, including obstruction of clinic entrances and intimidation of providers and patients.”
The FBI report, prepared by the Criminal Investigative and Counterterrorism Devision, concluded that anti-abortion violence will continue to escalate in tandem with abortion restrictions and the erosion of reproductive rights.
The city of Harrisburg’s statutory buffer zone was established in 2012 to protect providers and patients in the wake of a campaign of harassment that included anti-abortion activists pounding on clinic windows, following clinic staff, and trespassing in order to photograph patients against their will.
Women’s Law Project has been working to protect buffer zones in Pennsylvania since 2005.
Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond. As a non-profit organization, we can not do this work without you. Please consider supporting our work.
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