WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court is declining to get involved in a case about free speech outside a Pittsburgh abortion clinic.The high court turned away the case Monday.
The court's decision not to hear the case leaves in place a 2019 appeals court decision that upheld a Pittsburgh ordinance creating a 15-foot “buffer zone” where protests are barred around entrances to health care facilities.
The decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed “sidewalk counseling” within that zone.The appeals court said the city can restrict congregating, picketing, patrolling and demonstrating in the immediate vicinity of clinics, but the zone restrictions do not apply to “calm and peaceful” one-on-one conversations by anti-abortion activists.