View Comments      Email Article       Printable Version

Published: December 21, 2007

“Unconstitutional on its face”

Oakland won’t enforce “bubble ordinance” after pro-lifer challenges law in federal court

Just two days after the Oakland City Council adopted a so-called “bubble ordinance” that would have kept pro-life sidewalk counselors at least eight feet away from clients outside abortion clinics, the city has agreed, at least temporarily, not to enforce the new law.

The city’s sudden turnabout came as the result of a lawsuit filed Dec. 19 in U.S. District Court on behalf of a Berkeley man by Life Legal Defense Foundation, the day after the city council approved the ordinance. The lawsuit alleges the “bubble ordinance” violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which, among other things, guarantees freedom of speech.

On Thursday, Dec. 20, the City of Oakland agreed to hold off on enforcement of the law during a telephonic hearing before U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, Christian Newswire reported.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Walter B. Hoye II, executive elder of the Progressive Missionary Baptist Church of Berkeley. For the last two years, Hoye has regularly engaged in pro-life sidewalk counseling at the Family Planning Specialists abortion clinic in Oakland. Two women from his church, both over 80 years old, often join him outside the clinic. “We are not a threat to public safety and these women aren't even capable of harassing clinic clients," Hoye told the Oakland City Council during public hearings on the ordinance.

Hoye told California Catholic Daily in an October interview that it is pro-lifers who are harassed, bullied and physically attacked by “escorts” hired by the abortion clinics. “We are supposed to share the sidewalks, but I myself have been pushed and shoved,” Hoye said. “If they are on the left, I go to the right. If they want to walk ahead of me, I let them.”

Hoye said the escorts are so aggressive that some pro-lifers fear for their safety. “I have witnessed them stalking,” he said. “They will follow you to your car and write down your license plate number. One lady that I work with had to take refuge in a coffee shop because they kept following her, trying to find her car. She was afraid to go back to her car. They jumped in their car and followed her to her car, then blocked her, preventing her from pulling out.”

Abortion clinic escorts have subjected elderly women who join Hoye to the same aggressive behavior. “I saw them push an 89-year-old lady! They also pushed an 80-year-old woman I work with,” he said. “The 89-year-old lady stands on the edge of the curb on the sidewalk and says softly, ‘Abortion stops a beating heart.’ That’s all she does. And do you know what they do? They stand on both sides of her, shouting ‘La, la, la, la, la!’ as loud as they can.”

According to a news release from Life Legal Defense Foundation, Hoye’s lawsuit alleges the ordinance is “a content- and viewpoint-based restriction of speech and is unconstitutional on its face.” The lawsuit asks that the federal court enjoin enforcement of the ordinance for those reasons.

The challenged ordinance makes it unlawful, and punishable by up to one year in jail, to knowingly approach within eight feet of any person seeking to enter an abortion clinic, without their consent, to counsel or distribute literature to them or to urge them not to obtain an abortion, the news release said.

“Rather than helping women, this ordinance prevents them from receiving valuable information about their developing baby and options which would let that baby live,” said a statement from Bay area attorney Mike Millen, who joined Life Legal Defense Foundation in filing the suit. “It is sad that city leaders are spending time and money on laws that maximize revenue for the abortion industry at the expense of the health of women and babies."

Editor's Note: Life Legal Defense Foundation was established in 1989 and is a non-profit organization committed to the sanctity of human life. For more information, call LLDF legal director Katie Short at (805) 640-1940.

© California Catholic Daily 2007. All Rights Reserved.