Outside SCOTUS, Jubilation at ‘Buffer Zone’ Decision
Calling the Supreme Court’s June 26th buffer zone ruling a “victory for women” Students For Life President Kristin Hawkins and other pro-life leaders celebrated the chance to give women a better choice.
Pro-lifers (by far the majority of the crowd) stood in front of the Supreme Court, awaiting the Supreme Courts decisions of the day. Young women representing Students For Life chanted prayers while holding signs that declared, “We Are The Pro-Life Generation.”
Interns ran back and forth from the Supreme Court, finally delivering the news to the crowd of pro-life activists. The Supreme Court had unanimously struck down the Massachusetts law that created a buffer zone around abortion clinics.
The court ruled that the 35-foot buffer zones violate the First Amendment. The decision to repeal the law allows Pro-Life sidewalk counselors to approach women entering into abortion clinics and offer abortion alternatives.
Kristan Hawkins told MRC's Katie Yoder “This unanimous decision is huge for freedom of speech, for our country, and for our movement and for babies and their moms.” Continues after video.
Hawkins called it a victory for women because “we’re allowing women to get all of the information. That’s what frustrates me more than anything else on the other side, is that they say they’re about choice, they’re saying that they’re about giving women all the information. But it’s only information about abortion and so if you’re really pro-choice, if you’re really about giving women options, you’re for sidewalk counseling.”
Hawkins explained why these laws are a part of today’s conversation: “The abortion industry is scared. When we’re out there praying or when we’re out there giving women free resources saying you can have a free ultrasound, free pregnancy test, free STD screenings, we’re taking money out of [the industry’s] pocketbooks, and that’s fundamentally what abortion is about. It’s about money it’s a business, it’s an industry that grosses over a billion dollars a year.”
When asked how this ruling would affect the pro-life movement, Hawkins cited the 838 Students For Life groups on campuses across the nation. The majority of those groups, she continued, “go out every week to pray and to be advocates for women who are walking into an abortion facility thinking abortion is her only option.”
Despite the announcement of Hobby Lobby and the Conestoga Wood cases being postponed until Monday, the Pro-Life activists rejoiced the in the news permitting sidewalk counseling.
Yoder also asked Hawkins about how the media will report on the opinion. Referencing the judges’ unanimous decision, Hawkins explained, “I think the media, they’ll go one of two ways: either they’ll talk about it, and it should be fairly positive, or they’re just going to ignore it, which sometimes it happens in our movement."
