Florida town’s abortion buffer zone blocked amid legal battle

A federal appeals court has blocked a Florida city’s buffer zone ordinance in what lawyers for pro-life activists have described as a “resounding win for free speech and the voiceless preborn.”

In a decision published Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an abortion buffer zone law established by the city of Clearwater violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Judge Kevin Newsom, appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump, wrote the opinion, which Trump-appointed Judge Britt Grant joined. Judge Nancy Abudu, the third judge on the panel who was appointed to the bench by former President Joe Biden, issued a dissenting opinion.

“True, we have held [in the past] that only ‘direct penalization’ — as opposed to ‘incidental inhibition’ — of ‘First Amendment rights constitutes irreparable injury.’ But the Ordinance ‘categorically bars’ Florida Preborn’s speech by prohibiting sidewalk counselors from using a public sidewalk to distribute literature,” Newsom wrote. “The balance-of-harms and public-interest factors ‘merge when the Government is the opposing party,’ … and likewise counsel in favor of preliminary injunctive relief.”

The opinion follows a lawsuit from an organization of pro-life sidewalk counselors called Florida Preborn Rescue, as well as three of its members and a fourth individual who works with them.

The plaintiffs regularly go to Bread and Roses Women’s Health Center, an abortion clinic in Clearwater, “to have conversations on the sidewalk with, and provide literature to, patients and other persons entering and exiting medical centers providing abortion services.”

The plaintiffs alleged that an ordinance prohibiting pedestrians from entering the “vehicular driveway” located at the western entrance to the Bread and Roses Women’s Health Center and the portion of the sidewalk located within five feet of the concrete driveway violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Florida Constitution, and the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1998.

Clinic employees and first responders are the only groups exempt from the ordinance. The city of Clearwater countered that the ordinance is necessary because of “protestors repeatedly crossing the driveway of the health center and impeding ingress and egress of vehicle traffic and getting within close proximity of driving cars with the intent to frighten and intimidate the vehicle occupants.”

Florida Preborn Rescue and the sidewalk counselors sought a preliminary injunction setting aside the ordinance as litigation over the local law continued. The plaintiffs alleged that the ordinance restricted their ability to engage in pro-life activism.

While a lower court ruled against the plaintiffs, the 11th Circuit vacated that ruling and determined that “the district court abused its discretion in denying the preliminary injunction on the ground that Florida Preborn hadn’t established a likelihood of success on the merits.”

The appellate court remanded the case back to the lower court and ordered it to grant the requested injunction. The majority opinion cited precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court finding that “[t]he loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.”

In dissent, Abudu wrote that the lower court ruling correctly determined that the plaintiffs had failed to establish the “irreparable injury” needed to justify a preliminary injunction.

“I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion because Florida Preborn Rescue, Inc. … has not established a likelihood of success on the merits of their challenge against the City of Clearwater’s ordinance, which created a mere five foot buffer zone between leafleteers and patients seeking reproductive care in response to law enforcement’s repeated requests for more effective policing in the area,” Abudu wrote, stressing that preliminary injunctions “are a drastic remedy.”

The Thomas More Society, which represented the plaintiffs in their litigation, released a statement calling the ruling “a resounding win for free speech and the voiceless preborn.”

“Our clients simply seek to exercise their constitutional right to share resources and abortion alternatives peacefully with abortion-vulnerable women,” said Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Tyler Brooks.

“The court rightly affirmed that a city cannot use dubious, manufactured pretexts to silence speech it doesn’t like.”

Brooks asserts that “anti-speech zones rob women of critical information about options other than abortion.”

“Thomas More Society will continue fighting to dismantle them nationwide,” the attorney vowed. “We won’t let the abortion industry have the last word.”

Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Florida-based Christian conservative legal organization Liberty Counsel, praised the ruling, calling it “a significant victory for sidewalk counselors and free speech advocates.”

“Public sidewalks have always been protected places where people can gather to participate in the peaceful exchange of ideas,” he said in a statement Monday. “Abortion buffer zones collide with free speech and hinder women and girls from receiving information that could change their fateful decisions to end the life of their child.” “This recent decision should be an encouragement to pro-life sidewalk counselors around the country,” he added. 

A federal appeals court has blocked a Florida city’s buffer zone ordinance in what lawyers for pro-life activists have described as a “resounding win for free speech and the voiceless preborn.”

In a decision published Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an abortion buffer zone law established by the city of Clearwater violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Judge Kevin Newsom, appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump, wrote the opinion, which Trump-appointed Judge Britt Grant joined. Judge Nancy Abudu, the third judge on the panel who was appointed to the bench by former President Joe Biden, issued a dissenting opinion.

“True, we have held [in the past] that only ‘direct penalization’ — as opposed to ‘incidental inhibition’ — of ‘First Amendment rights constitutes irreparable injury.’ But the Ordinance ‘categorically bars’ Florida Preborn’s speech by prohibiting sidewalk counselors from using a public sidewalk to distribute literature,” Newsom wrote. “The balance-of-harms and public-interest factors ‘merge when the Government is the opposing party,’ … and likewise counsel in favor of preliminary injunctive relief.”

The opinion follows a lawsuit from an organization of pro-life sidewalk counselors called Florida Preborn Rescue, as well as three of its members and a fourth individual who works with them.

The plaintiffs regularly go to Bread and Roses Women’s Health Center, an abortion clinic in Clearwater, “to have conversations on the sidewalk with, and provide literature to, patients and other persons entering and exiting medical centers providing abortion services.”

The plaintiffs alleged that an ordinance prohibiting pedestrians from entering the “vehicular driveway” located at the western entrance to the Bread and Roses Women’s Health Center and the portion of the sidewalk located within five feet of the concrete driveway violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Florida Constitution, and the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1998.

Clinic employees and first responders are the only groups exempt from the ordinance. The city of Clearwater countered that the ordinance is necessary because of “protestors repeatedly crossing the driveway of the health center and impeding ingress and egress of vehicle traffic and getting within close proximity of driving cars with the intent to frighten and intimidate the vehicle occupants.”

Florida Preborn Rescue and the sidewalk counselors sought a preliminary injunction setting aside the ordinance as litigation over the local law continued. The plaintiffs alleged that the ordinance restricted their ability to engage in pro-life activism.

While a lower court ruled against the plaintiffs, the 11th Circuit vacated that ruling and determined that “the district court abused its discretion in denying the preliminary injunction on the ground that Florida Preborn hadn’t established a likelihood of success on the merits.”

The appellate court remanded the case back to the lower court and ordered it to grant the requested injunction. The majority opinion cited precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court finding that “[t]he loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.”

In dissent, Abudu wrote that the lower court ruling correctly determined that the plaintiffs had failed to establish the “irreparable injury” needed to justify a preliminary injunction.

“I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion because Florida Preborn Rescue, Inc. … has not established a likelihood of success on the merits of their challenge against the City of Clearwater’s ordinance, which created a mere five foot buffer zone between leafleteers and patients seeking reproductive care in response to law enforcement’s repeated requests for more effective policing in the area,” Abudu wrote, stressing that preliminary injunctions “are a drastic remedy.”

The Thomas More Society, which represented the plaintiffs in their litigation, released a statement calling the ruling “a resounding win for free speech and the voiceless preborn.”

“Our clients simply seek to exercise their constitutional right to share resources and abortion alternatives peacefully with abortion-vulnerable women,” said Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Tyler Brooks.

“The court rightly affirmed that a city cannot use dubious, manufactured pretexts to silence speech it doesn’t like.”

Brooks asserts that “anti-speech zones rob women of critical information about options other than abortion.”

“Thomas More Society will continue fighting to dismantle them nationwide,” the attorney vowed. “We won’t let the abortion industry have the last word.”

Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Florida-based Christian conservative legal organization Liberty Counsel, praised the ruling, calling it “a significant victory for sidewalk counselors and free speech advocates.”

“Public sidewalks have always been protected places where people can gather to participate in the peaceful exchange of ideas,” he said in a statement Monday. “Abortion buffer zones collide with free speech and hinder women and girls from receiving information that could change their fateful decisions to end the life of their child.” “This recent decision should be an encouragement to pro-life sidewalk counselors around the country,” he added.