San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors will soon decide whether to curtail the free-speech rights of prolife protesters. Currently, before the police can cite demonstrators for harassment, women seeking an abortion must inform protesters to cease their expression; alternatively, women must instruct them that they want to be left alone. Under the proposed new law, the onus is on the protesters: they must first get the consent of women seeking an abortion before exercising their free-speech rights.
Catholic League president William Donohue offered the following remarks today:
“This is a textbook case of how extremists operate in the U.S. If they can’t defeat their ideological adversaries in the court of public opinion, they reach for censorship. The idea that protesters must first obtain permission from those whom they seek to persuade is preposterous; if it passes, it will no doubt be struck down by the courts. That this is happening in San Francisco—home of violent pacifists—makes the story even more ironic.
“The ACLU should have an interest in opposing this gag rule; we will contact them today. At stake is not simply the right of prolife protesters, at stake is the right of all demonstrators. But it does not surprise us that this proposed law is aimed most directly at Catholics and Protestants—anti-Christian legislation is becoming a national sport for fanatical secularists.”
