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Repeal abortion clinic buffer zone?

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On Tuesday, April 5 a Senate committee heard testimony on a bill to repeal the buffer zone around reproductive health care clinics.

In 2014 New Hampshire passed a law to create a 25-foot protest-free zone around abortion clinics.  However, in 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a 35-foot buffer zone in Massachusetts, stating that the law infringed on the right to free speech.  As a result, New Hampshire’s Attorney General is not enforcing the state’s buffer zone law. 

This week a U.S. District Court also dismissed a case against New Hampshire’s law because no clinics have tried to create protest-free zones.

However, many of New Hampshire’s reproductive health care clinics want the state to keep the law on the books, so that they have the option of pushing back protests in the future.

“The New Hampshire buffer zone strikes the balance between privacy and safe passage and the First Amendment rights,” testified Kayla McCarthy of the Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund.

Opponents argue that New Hampshire’s law would undoubtedly be struck down in court, if it were ever enforced. 

Speaking on behalf of a House committee, Rep. Kurt Wuelper wrote, “the current law is an unconstitutional restriction on the people’s right to freedom of speech and access to public property. Keeping the law commits the state to years of legal expense defending a law that purports to resolve a problem never substantiated by any documented offense.”

Do you think New Hampshire should keep the buffer zone law on the books, or repeal?  Let us know in the comments.

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