Pro-life activist challenges San Diego’s abortion ‘buffer zone’ law as unconstitutional– www.lifesitenews.com

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Roger Lopez is a sidewalk counselor in San Diego who regularly offers resources and emotional support to women outside of abortion centers. Lopez could be seen standing outside San Diego’s downtown Planned Parenthood 2-3 hours a day, praying and talking with women considering abortion. Court documents show that this particular Planned Parenthood was responsible for 24,000 abortions a year.

To combat sidewalk counselors such as Lopez in the name of “public safety,” the city of San Diego enacted “bubble zones” around abortion centers to minimize their outreach. These zones established a 100-foot buffer around the facility entrance, along with an 8-foot floating zone for individuals moving within that area.

In response, Lopez and the Thomas More Society filed a lawsuit claiming the new ordinance violated Lopez’s 1st and 14th Amendment rights to speak freely in public places.

Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at the Thomas More Society, emphasized in a press release the blatant violation of the Constitution that San Diego has committed by not allowing free speech on a public sidewalk.

“The right to freedom of speech is at its highest on the public sidewalk, so attempts like San Diego’s to silence pro-life speech outside abortion businesses is an especially egregious attack on our constitutional rights,” Breen emphasized.

Special counsel Paul Jonna expressed the vital emotional support provided by sidewalk counselors, noting that many women seeking abortions may not receive such information from any other source.

“Pro-life sidewalk counselors like Roger Lopez offer these women help, compassion, support, and information. But the City of San Diego wants to deprive women of this information—leading them to mistakenly believe that abortion is their only option,” Jonna said.