Colorado Pro-Life Sidewalk Counselor Says State's 8-Foot 'Bubble Law' Could Put Her in Jail; Case Is at the 10th Circuit
Wendy Faustin says the rule bars her from approaching within 8 feet of anyone near a clinic entrance to offer alternatives to abortion. A judge rejected her challenge in July, and her lawyer expects the case to reach the Supreme Court.
A Colorado pro-life sidewalk counselor is fighting a state law she says makes quiet conversations outside abortion clinics a legal risk, Fox News reports.
The law. Colorado state law and a Denver ordinance bar people from knowingly approaching within eight feet of someone without consent to hand out literature or engage in protest, education or counseling, within 100 feet of a health care facility entrance. A violation is a petty offense, punishable by a fine or a short jail sentence.
Her argument. Wendy Faustin told Fox News Digital the rule keeps her from quietly offering women information about pregnancy resource centers and adoption agencies. "If you're within 100 feet of the entrance to an abortion clinic, I can't approach someone within 8 feet to give them any alternative information," she said. She says speaking from a distance can let others overhear a deeply personal conversation.
Her lawyer's argument. Roger Byron of First Liberty Institute says such laws "would be struck down immediately if they restricted anti-war protesters or union workers on strike." He says the law creates "two First Amendments" and that the case reaches beyond abortion to anyone whose message the government dislikes.
The legal road. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Colorado's 1993 law in Hill v. Colorado in 2000, finding no First Amendment violation. A federal judge rejected Faustin's challenge last July. It is now on appeal at the 10th Circuit. Byron expects it to end up at the Supreme Court either way. Colorado's attorney general's office told Fox it has no comment beyond its filings.
Note for readers: this account comes from Faustin and her lawyers. The state's side appears only as a no-comment, and Fox does not describe the arguments in its filings.