San Francisco Seeking New Ways to Keep Protesters Away from Abortion Clinics

What the courts take away, San Francisco will keep in place. Buffer zones in front of abortion clinics that keep anti-abortion protesters away from women seeking help at Planned Parenthood and other clinics would be enforced by local police under a proposal from San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor Malia Cohen, according to reports.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that lawmakers are looking for ways to keep people unharassed near abortion clinics, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down rules in other states designed to keep protesters away from abortion clinics.

Instead, San Francisco is poised to do what Massachusetts did after its 35-foot buffer zone was invalidated by the court: pass a law that says a protester can be shooed away once a police officer determines that a woman seeking an abortion is being harassed.

If that happens, and the protester does not leave or get 25 feet away, the protester can be arrested, the newspaper reported.

An earlier proposal from Supervisor David Campos for a 25-foot buffer zone may have to be abandoned after the court rulings.

In the meantime, police are employing a 20-year-old law to keep protesters away from the Planned Parenthood on Valencia Street. This law bans "aggressive pursuit" that creates "annoyance" or "intimidation," the newspaper reported.

Either way, San Francisco is committed to keeping peoples' visits to a reproductive clinic safe, the mayor said in a statement.