Metro Council members file plan to create buffer between protesters, Louisville abortion clinic patients

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Once a protester outside the EMW Women's Surgical Center, Joseph Tindle now shows up at the Louisville abortion clinic for a drastically different reason. He escorts the clinic's patients through the crowd of protesters to deliver them safely to the entrance.

During a March 25 Louisville Metro Council meeting, Tindle explained what sparked his transformation and what "discouraged" his participation at future clinic protests.

"Oftentimes, these women have to walk through a hoard of protesters," Tindle said. "They would shove people. They would knock them out of the way. They would get into their bubble — into their person.

"... I quickly — I turned away, and I was like, 'I can’t be down here. This is not what I came down here to do,'" he continued.

Tindle then started volunteering as a clinic escort.

His anecdote is not unlike those of others who have denounced the tactics pro-life protesters sometimes use outside the clinic as they discourage patients from entering it. Councilwoman Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-8, and others say the demonstrations have become too pushy and too dangerous.

"The things that are going on at EMW Clinic cross the line from free speech into unsafe conduct," she said.

So, on Monday, Chambers Armstrong and several of her colleagues filed a draft ordinance that would give patients space from protesters:

(1)    No person shall knowingly obstruct, detain, hinder, impede, or block another person’s entry to or exit from a healthcare facility.
(2)    No person shall knowingly enter, remain on, or create any obstruction within the driveway of a healthcare facility or within a “buffer zone” on the public way or sidewalk extending from the entrance of a healthcare facility to the closest adjacent sidewalk curb and 10 feet from side to side, during the facility’s posted business hours, except:
                    (a)        persons entering or leaving such facility;
                    (b)        persons using the public sidewalk or street right-of-way adjacent to such facility solely for the purpose of reaching a destination other than such facility; or
                    (c)        law enforcement, ambulance, firefighting, construction, utilities, public works and other municipal agents acting within the scope of their employment; or
                    (d)        employees or agents of such facility acting within the scope of their employment.

According to the ordinance, violators will be warned on their first violation. If they re-violate, they face being cited and fined.

Safety zone 2 IMG_0159[1818].jpeg — Lines drawn in chalk show the width of the potential buffer zone. (Source: Cassie Chambers Armstrong)

"A 10-foot block of sidewalk doesn't impair anyone's First Amendment rights," Chambers Armstrong said. "People can still express their thoughts, their disagreement, their opinions. They just can't do it in one 10-foot zone."

However, critics like Corey Koellner with Right to Life Louisville argue the ordinance would limit free speech and violate the Constitution.

"The failed 'buffer zone' ordinance which will be re-introduced to Metro Council is a ruse to further the interests of a private entity, EMW abortion clinic, at the expense of the public's right of free speech," he wrote, in part. "The U.S. Supreme Court has already recognized that co-opting a public sidewalk for the sole, discretionary use of a private company like EMW is unconstitutional."

But that argument doesn’t hold up for Meg Stern. She's served as a volunteer escort at the clinic since 1999.

"I think it's silly to assert that a 10-foot — essentially the width of many hallways — is going to hamper anyone's ability to verbally deliver a message," she said.

A similar ordinance failed in a 12-13 council vote last August.

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