The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit once again upheld the city of Harrisburg’s statutory buffer zone.
WLP attorneys represent witnesses in the case and are counsel for amici curiae Physicians for Reproductive Health and Pittsburgh Pro-Choice Escorts supporting the City of Harrisburg. You can read the opinion here.
“With attacks on abortion access escalating in states where abortion remains legal, like Pennsylvania, the Third Circuit’s decision upholding Harrisburg’s buffer zone is crucial for protecting clinic staff and patients from violence and harassment,” says WLP attorney Maggie Neely, who co-authored an amicus brief filed in the case. “We must defend buffer zones and prevent anti-abortion extremists from harassing patients to help ensure safe access to essential reproductive healthcare in post-Roe Pennsylvania.”
Buffer zones are limited, fixed areas surrounding the entrance of a building designed to protect patients and facility employees from harassment, obstruction, and potential violence. Two of the few continuously enforced statutory buffer zones in the country remain in effect in Pennsylvania: one in Pittsburgh, and one in Harrisburg.
Harrisburg’s statutory buffer zone was implemented in 2012 in response to continuous incidents of anti-abortion harassment that included harassers pounding on clinic windows, following clinic staff, and trespassing to photograph patients against their will.
Anti-abortion street protestors have been trying to eliminate the Harrisburg buffer zone since 2016. One of the anti-abortion activists in this case was featured in a story last year for sitting in a van outside Planned Parenthood and tracking the perceived race of people observed entering the facility.
This is the third time that Harrisburg’s buffer zone ordinance has survived a challenge in the Third Circuit.
WLP attorneys have been defending buffer zones in Pennsylvania since 2005.
Women’s Law Project is a non-profit public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond.
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