Thread by @RewireNewsGroup

Last week a federal court delivered a swift blow to anti-abortion protesters in New York who argued that the FACE Act, which protects clinic workers and patients from violent protesters, violated their First Amendment rights.

What’s the FACE Act? We’re glad you asked!

THREAD:

The FACE Act—the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrance Act—is a federal law designed to protect access to abortion clinics.

It was signed into law in 1994 after a whole bunch of clinic violence. It prohibits the use of physical force or obstruction to interfere with anyone trying to access reproductive health services.

In short, it’s basically like: You can’t be intimidating patients outside abortion clinics. Seems reasonable enough! But you know those antis—so “pro-life” they will resort to violence over it.

Last week’s decision came in a case centered on protesters outside a Queens, New York, clinic but anti-abortion violence is rampant at clinics all over the country.

For example, in early March, 12 people, including 4 minors, were arrested in Tennessee after barricading themselves into the Carafem Clinic. It led to a shelter in place and road closures.

Behavior like this is, as @AngryBlackLady said, a good example of a pretty BLATANT violation of the FACE Act:

https://twitter.com/AngryBlackLady/status/1367926884432896001

If that isn’t abhorrent enough, one arresting officer called the teenagers involved “two awesome kids.” As @LouClinicEscort pointed out, compare that with how police treat Black teens:

https://twitter.com/LouClinicEscort/status/1367922047561719812

And we’ve long covered the anti-abortion violence at A Preferred Women’s Health Center in North Carolina, which is regularly under siege from protesters—including recently when they received a bomb threat: rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2021/0…

None of this comes as a surprise though. Antis have long used violence against providers and called it their First Amendment right. It’s kind of their thing.

Which is why the FACE Act and last week’s ruling are so crucial.