Anti-Abortion Activists Required To Keep Distance From Clinics, People Under New Ordinance

Chicago Breaking News:

The Chicago City Council today voted 27-11 to pass an ordinance creating a so-called bubble zone requiring anti-abortion activists to keep their distance from people entering clinics.

Read the whole story: Chicago Breaking News

Comments

[mratcheson]

06:36 AM on 10/11/2009

Requiring the protesters stay eight feet from women minding their own business and trying to enter a clinic is plenty close. What is it they feel they have a right to do to those women that is being denied by this restriction? It can't be peaceful.

[Rodger leMonde]

10:33 AM on 10/10/2009

Has any one ever seen an anti abortion protest with a sign "Please come to the Christian Women's Clinic"?
Now have you ever seen billboards that advertise such a clinic that explain that the clinic didn't see abortion as an option?
You can't trust them when they are quiet either.

[Danielle Cavallucci]

02:51 PM on 10/09/2009

Thanks to the City Council of Chicago for having sense enough to enact this legislation. Those misguided souls so concerned with the wombs and lives of women they have no control over should realize (a) the majority of the women walking into Planned Parenthood are there for preventative and health maintenance procedures (b) their attempt to impose their religious views on other people is in clear violation of the constitutional right to freedom of religion (c) their religion in no way advocates the sort of violence they utilize in order to make their point (d) their time and resources, if they were truly interested in a better world, would be devoted to developing sustainable methods of preserving our species rather than violently opposing the choices made by other human co-habitants of our country and planet (e) preventing abortion begins with family planning and education NOT protest under the auspices of protecting life

[Maezeppa]

07:21 PM on 10/08/2009

Men who are actively against abortion are crazy chauvanist freaks. Ask them if they think abortion is murder. After they say 'yes', tell them you assume they advocate capital punishment for the killers. They will agree to that for the doctor but not the woman because somehow she doesn't have the will or strength or whatever to take responsibility for her decision. She's just this dumb, malleable plastic. Then tell them you assume he would agree that all women should not be prosecuted for any murder. That usually stops them cold.

[DeniseD]

01:29 PM on 10/08/2009

I think these types of ordinances should be passed for every clinic. The anti-abortion activists are truly scary and sometimes violent.

I used to be a pharmaceutical rep, and I sold birth control pills. I had to go to some of these clinics to drop off samples, and I was always afraid for my safety. People forget that these clinics provide valuable services, like birth control and pregnancy prevention counseling. If the anti-abortion activists would just let these people do their jobs, there would be fewer unwanted pregnancies and abortion rates would go down.

[Pennsanic]

03:26 PM on 10/08/2009

Perhaps if you were dropping off Bibles or abstinence literature they'd have backed off.

;-)

[AZterritory]

01:02 PM on 10/08/2009

About time. Now head into Oklahoma to deal with that privacy invasion nightmare and then to Arizona, where a 24 our waiting period just went into law.

[Safire]

12:27 PM on 10/08/2009

They care so much about the unborn, but will do nothing for the many many many children that go hungry and are abused daily in this country. See, after they come into the world, why, they better pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, or better yet, go get charity. They are the one' s front and center in saying NO to healthcare for those kids. It would be a joke, if it were not so sad. If they really cared, they would use their time to volunteer at a soup kitchen, or be big brother or sister for the unfortunate needy ones whose lives the purportedly saved!

[Danielle Cavallucci]

02:42 PM on 10/09/2009

Safire, this is exactly what I've been saying over and over again in blog posts & commentary. If you have sufficient time and resource to protest so maliciously, go adopt and unwanted child born of your anti-choice efforts!!

[legalgirl]

12:14 PM on 10/08/2009

All these stupid men pretending to protect women and children. It's "harrassment," and if I had the misfortune of having to take my daughter to a clinic and found all you big stupid men in front of the building, I would be tempted to call a cop and swear out a warrant for assault.

[Pennsanic]

03:28 PM on 10/08/2009

Imagine a world in which men could get pregnant. This would so not be an issue. It's about power and control, just like every other 'faith based' conflict.

[RevBookburn]

11:49 PM on 10/07/2009

After 30 years of terrorism from their ranks, a bubble zone is the least protection that can be provided for patients. Harrassment and threats are not legitimate protests.

[hypnotoad72]

09:00 PM on 10/07/2009

Anti-abortion people: Surely there are more positive things you can do than bleat in front of an office holding big signs? And I don't mean anything that would get you life in prison either!!

[amdezurik]

01:35 PM on 10/08/2009

sadly to them "productive" means bombing clinics and shooting people...

[peanut2005]

07:36 PM on 10/07/2009

Good. Why don't they take some of that energy, passion and help stop some of these unwanted pregnancies.

[amdezurik]

01:35 PM on 10/08/2009

what? and face facts? NEVER!

[srose74]

04:41 PM on 10/07/2009

Good. It's legal to have an abortion so those Christian hypocrite need to stay the he!! away!

[fallingsky]

06:03 PM on 10/07/2009

but it is not illegal to protest either

[ladyvader]

08:36 PM on 10/07/2009

Some cross the line and actually harass people coming and going from clinics.

[amdezurik]

01:36 PM on 10/08/2009

shooting people is however and planting bombs

[zombywulf]

04:30 PM on 10/07/2009

They should all be required to stay in Arkansas, where they belong.........

[joybe2006]

04:29 PM on 10/07/2009

Great! this needs to implemented everywhere. These closed-minded religious freaks need to get over themselves, their the first to complain about welfare when people keep babies the weren't ready for. Remember thous shall not judge anti-choice people

[fallingsky]

04:18 PM on 10/07/2009

Chicago City council is not know for their legal expertise,,, this will be challenged in court ....

[Osusuki]

01:27 AM on 10/08/2009

Maybe, but the challenge will fail. Other state and local governments have had these laws for a long time, and of course there is the FACE Act of 1994, which, although the Bush administration refused to prosecute under it, has never been successfully challenged in court. Anti-abortion protesters are a blight on the landscape, and deserve no more consideration than the idiot who yells "fire" in a crowded theater. Chicago should have free speech zones for them, like they do for political conventions--two miles away and hopefully located off the shore of Lake Michigan. If they bring their own boat, they can scare the fish all they want.