Dear Metro Council Members,
I am writing to you in favor of a Buffer Zone Ordinance. I am one of many pro-choice Catholics who believes that women should have the right to an abortion. My opinion on the matter was actually solidified by watching the actions and rhetoric of protestors at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Brookline, Massachusetts, one street over from my college apartment. These protesters used the same methods and rhetoric as those at EMW. A year after I graduated, one of these protesters took to violence, opening fire at this clinic and another in the Boston area, killing two and injuring many others.
I understand this is a charged issue for many politicians, not just because of faith, but because putting a D or R behind your name sets up an expectation of how you're supposed to talk about abortion. Unfortunately, it's a wedge issue that gets far more time than other topics that directly impact everyone in our city, state, and country, and it's one that seems immune to rational discussion. But I would hope that you'll at least consider the following when discussing buffer zones and voting in favor of them.
1) Free speech is a right, but it's not an absolute right. The Supreme Court has ruled previously (Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York) that fixed buffer zones are constitutional. If your concern is that the ordinance might be unconstitutional, then I suggest that you seek a legal opinion from your legal experts, not make that judgement on your own based on selective reading of Supreme Court decisions.
2) Abortion IS legal. There is ONE abortion clinic in Kentucky, which means every individual who needs abortion services in Kentucky, regardless of reason, must go to EMW for those services. This and EMW's location on a city street with a public right of way make it an easy target for protestors to intimidate and harass everyone seeking services in Kentucky and makes it a flashpoint for confrontation. A buffer zone would limit those confrontations.
3) The actions taking place downtown are indeed protests, harassment, and attempts to impose one's faith on others. They are not "counseling". The individuals who show up to "counsel" those seeking services have NO IDEA why anyone seeking services are there, or to guide them in their decisions beyond stopping them from having an abortion. The women walking through those doors may be grieving over the loss of a pregnancy, facing the trauma of carrying a baby with no chance of survival to term, and almost certainly have spent some time contemplating the decision and making the right one for them. Paid "sidewalk counselor" Ed Harpring has testified about saving 6000 men and women from a lifetime of regret, which would seem to ignore the data that says the vast majority of those who sought abortions did NOT regret their decision over time. While I completely support the free speech right of these men and women to stand on the sidelines and shout whatever they want, I would hope that you would not support rejecting a buffer zone under the guise that these men and women are doing "counseling". Counseling implies consent by the counseled, and an honest effort to provide facts and meet the counseled where they are, not steamroll them or guilt them into making a decision the counselor wants based on false facts and cruel rhetoric.
4) While there are many protestors at EMW who are peaceful and non-confrontational, there are several who seem to be looking for confrontation or more violent outcomes. One out of state minister who visits the clinic regularly has posted images of clinic escorts on his social media pages and encouraged vile and violent rhetoric against those individuals. Even some of the "sweet little old ladies" who protest at the clinic are not above using cruel and demeaning rhetoric (such as calling escorts, "deathscorts") and making false statements about their confrontations at the clinic. Meanwhile, escorts at the clinic are trained to be non-confrontational and have actively discouraged counter protests to preserve civility at the clinic.
I urge you to please vote in favor of a buffer zone. You will be protecting free speech, helping reduce the hostilities at the clinic, and protecting a woman's access to legal healthcare SHE chooses.
