This article was written Sarah Holliday and published in The Washington Stand.
There’s a local law in Carbondale, Illinois, that prohibits “approaching women outside clinics to advise of abortion alternatives.” A pro-life advocacy group has challenged this law time and again, despite being dismissed. However, in a January twist, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) is considering whether it will hear the petition put forth by Coalition Life (CL).
First litigated in 2000, Hill v. Colorado was the court decision that upheld a law that “makes it illegal — within 100 feet of a hospital, medical clinic, or health care facility — to come within eight feet of another person with the intention of distributing leaflets, displaying signs, or participating in protest, education, or counseling.” But CL, a pro-life sidewalk counseling organization, sued the Illinois city’s Disorderly Conduct Ordinance on the grounds that it violates locals’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
In their lawsuit, Coalition Life v. City of Carbondale, the coalition highlighted the 2022 SCOTUS Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overruled Roe v. Wade. According to the pro-life group, since Roe was overturned, “laws restricting free speech outside abortion clinics deserve to be reexamined in light of [that].” They wrote, “Dobbs should have made clear beyond [objection] that Hill could no longer skew public debate on a divisive issue being returned to the people.”
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