The New Hampshire House voted (162-100) last week to institute 25-foot “buffer zones” around abortion clinics.
Opponents spent hours pointing out that this is an egregious violation of free speech for the sake of a “special interest group.” But the House made changes to bill the Senate had passed, necessitating an additional vote in the state Senate.
Under the First Amendment, no business should have the right to restrict American citizens from the sidewalks of America, the public properties those same citizens’ taxes fund. At least with those two stripped amendments, the buffer zone would have been more fairly applied. With their removal, the NH House further revealed the increasing political animosity in America towards pro-lifers.
In other places, prosecution of pro-lifers has already begun.
Walter Hoye, president of the Issues4Life Foundation in California, was arrested a few years ago for holding a sign that said, “God loves you and your baby. Let us help you,” outside an abortion clinic. In February 2009, nine young adults were arrested on a public sidewalk outside a high school while distributing pro-life pamphlets. (They were later released.) Pro-lifers in Canada and Germany have been charged, prosecuted and jailed under their nation’s hate crimes laws, which mirror America’s.
The sad fact is that we are being persecuted in this country for the simple act of protecting an even larger persecuted class: preborn babies in the womb. It is absolutely vital to the work of stopping abortion that all pro-lifers, and indeed all true Americans who value free speech, be on guard against further corrosion of our free speech, like this law in New Hampshire.
CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!
First, please share this article widely so other pro-lifers are aware of the encroaching dangers to our right to protect life. Second, the Senate has yet to pass the amended bill. PLEASE, no matter what state you live in, assist the pro-lifers in New Hampshire by emailing this brief message (or your own) to all the Senators of New Hampshire: “Please vote against SB 319, the abortion clinic buffer zone law. It is unconstitutional and a violation of our free speech.”
Find the emails of the 24 Senators here. It will only take you a few minutes and will help secure your freedom of speech and, undoubtedly, the lives of many children.
