ENGLEWOOD, N.J.—Another challenge to Englewood’s contested buffer zone protecting women seeking an abortion evoked strong words of support from public officials and a co-owner of the controversial local clinic at the Aug. 20 council meeting.
Mayor Michael Wildes and several City Council members spoke out in favor of Englewood’s long-contested ordinance that created a buffer zone around a local abortion clinic to prevent protesters from getting too close to women trying to enter the clinic.
On Monday, Aug. 19, a federal lawsuit challenging the buffer zone ordinance—which keeps protesters eight feet away from clinic visitors—was sent back to a lower court.
The ordinance was passed unanimously by City Council in March 2014 to try to minimize harassment of patients entering the clinic by anti-abortion protesters who line the sidewalks near the facility and offer alternatives.
Back to state courts
A lawsuit was filed in 2015 against the ordinance by anti-abortion activist Jeryl Turco. In November 2017, a U.S. District Court judge struck down the buffer zone ordinance but the recent federal decision reopens the case and remands it back to federal court in New Jersey to determine whether Turco’s free speech rights had been infringed by the buffer zone.
The November 2017 decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton found that Englewood’s buffer zone ordinance was too broad “and did not create a targeted statute to address the specific issue of congestion or militant or aggressive protesters outside of the clinic.”
She said Englewood’s ordinance “created a sweeping regulation that burdens the free speech of individuals, not just in front of the clinic, but at healthcare and transitional facilities citywide.”
Reached Aug. 27, Wildes, who was not in office when the 2014 ordinance was passed, said the ordinance was passed due to the council’s “sensitivity to pedestrians and people” being harassed while trying to enter the clinic.
“This [decision] alludes to the notion that the buffer is appropriate…the [pro-life] case can be made without intruding on their physical boundaries” as people enter, said Wildes.
Wildes said he heard from owners and employees of Metropolitan Medical Associates on Engle Street about how loud and often intimidating the anti-abortion protesters are as women enter for a consultation or abortion.
‘Safety and privacy’
“We have to come up with a way that protects First Amendment rights and also the rights for people’s safety and privacy that should trump everything else,” Wildes told Northern Valley Press.
He said Saturdays are “the worst” because more protesters are there trying to speak with and harass women coming to the clinic.
“This is a national debate that finds itself on the streets of Englewood,” observed Wildes.
Over the years, the abortion clinic at 40 Engle St. has been a focus of chronic, highly organized protests, including many highly aggressive protesters “that are far more menacing to [clinic] patients and staff” than anything else faced by women who have decided to have an abortion, said Wildes.
‘Thunderous applause’
More than five years ago, Northern Valley Press reported a unanimous all-Democratic City Council passed a buffer ordinance to “thunderous applause.” Approving members included then-Council President Lynne Algrant; Fourth Ward Councilman Wayne Hamer, First Ward Councilman Marc Forman; then-Third Ward Councilman Eugene Skurnick; and Second Ward Councilman Michael Cohen.
Then-Mayor Frank Huttle also strongly endorsed the buffer zone.
The ordinance amended Chapter 307 of the city’s code, titled “Peace and Good Order.”
It defined disorderly conduct as “obstructing healthcare facilities and transitional facilities (i.e. group homes for the disabled).”
It exclusively bars anti-abortion demonstrators who “knowingly enter or remain on a public way or sidewalk adjacent to a healthcare facility or transitional facility within a radius of 8 feet of any portion of an entrance, exit or driveway for such facility or within the area within a rectangle created by extending the outside boundaries of any, entrance, exit or driveway” during clinic operating hours.
Approximately a dozen clinic escorts, dressed in fluorescent vests, sat in two rows at the meeting to show support for the city’s imperiled buffer zone ordinance.
Jane Doe, a co-founder of Metropolitan Medical Associates clinic, said she was there when the buffer ordinance was enacted in 2014.
‘One person at a time’
“For two years before you enacted that law and for every Saturday since our [escort] volunteers have been on the sidewalk protecting the Constitutional rights of women…one person at a time,” she said.
Doe said she’s on watch for women who have been “verbally harassed” by protesters and she comforts them during a highly stressful period.
She said women entering the clinic often experience “a gauntlet of hatred, abuse and intimidation the likes of which I hope none of you ever encounter.”
She thanked City Council members for the buffer ordinance. “It means the world to us and it means the world to every woman who we help every Saturday. Please know that we appreciate and depend on your support. Enforcing the buffer law will make an extremely distressing experience a bit easier for the clinic’s patients. We can’t let the bullies win, we won’t let the bullies win, and with your help they won’t win,” she said.
She requested the council have the police present Saturday at the clinic entrance to continue to enforce the buffer zone.
‘Straight to hell’
“They will stand at that door and scream into the clinic and tell the women that they are going straight to hell unless somebody from the police department is there to tell them that they cannot do that,” Doe said.
She thanked council members for their support over the years and “for all the kind words…it’s very meaningful to us,” she added.
Earlier, Cohen pointed out how “scary” the 2014 meeting was when the council adopted a buffer zone ordinance and thanked the escorts for their critical volunteer services every week.
During public comments, almost a dozen residents offered words of support for the city’s buffer ordinance or praise for the facility and clinic escorts.