Today the Thomas More Society filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Pro-Life Action League that seeks to overturn the City of Chicago’s hopelessly confusing “bubble zone” law, which has grossly infringed on the rights of pro-life sidewalk counselors to reach out to abortion-bound mothers since it was enacted in 2009.
To help launch this lawsuit, the League held a noon press conference and protest outside Planned Parenthood’s Near North abortion facility near downtown Chicago, which was attended by dozens of grassroots pro-life activists holding signs reading, “Protect Free Speech” and “No Bubble Zone.”
Ann Scheidler speaks at press conference outside Chicago Planned Parenthood [Photo by John Jansen]
Among the speakers at the press conference were Pro-Life Action League vice president Ann Scheidler, longtime sidewalk counselor Veronica Price, and Steve Crampton, special counselor for the Thomas More Society (TMS).
In her remarks, Ann Scheidler spoke about the repeated misinterpretation of the ordinance by police officers:
The Chicago Police have consistently misinterpreted and misunderstood the Ordinance. Escorts recruited by the abortion clinics have either intentionally or inadvertently misstated the law and repeatedly called out the police for useless trips to the abortion clinics. With all the actual violence in our city, it has been a colossal waste of police resources to send two, three or four squad cars to the abortion clinics where peaceful pro-lifers are simply trying to exercise their first amendment right to free speech and free assembly.
The women of Chicago will be far better served when the federal Court declares Chicago’s Bubble Zone ordinance unconstitutional.
Chicago is the largest city in the nation that has a “bubble zone” law currently on the books, so this case is sure to garner a great deal of attention.
Watch this space for developments.
