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Abortion Constitutionality Court cases Free Speech Sidewalk Counseling

Speech by Sidewalk Counselors and Clinic “Escorts” Must be Treated the Same

Walter Hoye, a California pastor and sidewalk counselor, filed a federal constitutional challenge to the City of Oakland’s “Mother May I” ordinance restricting speech outside abortion clinics after having been arrested twice for approaching women seeking to enter abortion clinics. The case is Hoye v. Oakland. Evidence in the case established the Pastor Hoye attempted to approach the women “to have a personal, one-on-one conversation with each woman concerning her individual situation and what is causing her to consider abortion.” He often held a sign proclaiming, “Jesus loves you and your baby. Let us help.” The court accepted as true the pastor’s testimony that he “never called a woman a baby killer or murderer or told her she would rot in hell, or expressed any judgment like that.”

Notwithstanding his peaceful approaches, Pastor Hoyt was convicted twice for violating the “Mother May I” or “bubble zone” ordinance that prohibited “knowingly and willfully approaching within eight feet of an individual seeking entry to an abortion clinic if one’s purpose in approaching that person is to engage in conversation, protest, counseling, or various other forms of speech.” Both criminal convictions were eventually overturned on procedural points, but Pastor Hoye continued to challenge the law he had been arrested under. He lost in the federal trial court. You can read that opinion here. Pastor Hoye appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

A unanimous Ninth Circuit panel (including liberal judges Marsha S. Berzon and Stephen Reinhardt) ruled that the language of the Oakland ordinance was content-neutral applying equally to anyone approaching a woman seeking to enter an abortion clinic, and therefore constitutional on its face. However, the court went on to say that the statute, as it was being applied by city officials and law enforcement, was unconstitutional since evidence established that the City of Oakland and its police enforced the ordinance only to efforts by sidewalk counselors seeking to persuade women not to receive abortions, and not to clinic escorts or others seeking to encourage entry into the clinic for the purpose of obtaining an abortion. The Ninth Circuit Opinion can be found here.

Teresa Collett

Teresa Stanton Collett is a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she teaches bioethics, property law, and constitutional law. A nationally prominent speaker and scholar, she is active in attempts to rebuild the Culture of Life and protect the institutions of marriage and family. She often represents groups of state legislators, the Catholic Medical Association, and the Christian Medical and Dental Association in appellate case related to medical-legal matters. She represented the governors of Minnesota and North Dakota before the U.S. Supreme Court as amici curiae regarding the effectiveness of those states’ parental involvement laws. She has served as special attorney general for Oklahoma and Kansas related to legislation designed to protect the well-being of minors and unborn children. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has testified before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittees on the Constitution, as well as numerous legislative committees in the states.