A Portland City Council committee recommended Tuesday that the city seek a state law allowing police to create a temporary buffer zone around abortion clinics if protesters attempt to impede access to the facilities.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a permanent 35-foot buffer zone established around Massachusetts abortion clinics violated protesters’ free speech rights. As a result, the Portland City Council repealed its own 39-foot buffer zone outside a health clinic near Monument Square that was the subject of a separate court challenge.

Portland councilors have since debated whether to attempt a different local ordinance inspired by others that have passed muster with the courts. But on Tuesday, members of the council’s Public Safety, Health and Human Services Committee opted to once again follow Massachusetts’ lead, this time by pursuing state legislation.

In July, Massachusetts lawmakers passed a bill that allows police to order the dispersal of any gathering “that substantially impedes access to or departure from” a clinic that provides reproductive health treatment.

After issuing the order, police can then establish a 25-foot buffer zone for eight hours that applies only to the group that was told to disperse. Any member of the group who disobeys the order can be arrested, according to the Massachusetts law.

Councilor Ed Suslovic said the Supreme Court “had slammed the door” on Portland’s ordinance and did not give the city much wiggle room for crafting an alternative. Instead, he and other committee members will recommend to the full City Council that city staff work with state lawmakers to craft a bill to be introduced in the legislative session that begins next January.

“I am committed to balancing and protecting the rights of the protesters,” said Councilor Jill Duson. “But I am also committed to doing what I can to prevent an atmosphere of bullying” outside of the city’s lone clinic.

A small group of abortion opponents hold weekly nonviolent protests outside Planned Parenthood’s clinic on Congress Street. The demonstrators describe themselves as “counselors” offering information on alternatives to ending a pregnancy but occasionally hold signs or posters with enlarged images of aborted fetuses.

Duson said the vast majority of those protests are “well behaved.” But Planned Parenthood staff members have complained that demonstrators have occasionally blocked passage on the sidewalk near the entrance and shouted loud enough for patients inside to hear.

In response, Planned Parenthood now hires a Portland police officer to stand at the entrance and employs additional escorts or “greeters” to guide patients into the building. The clinic provides a broad range of women’s health services, including family planning and cancer screenings.

Nicole Clegg, vice president for public policy at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, told councilors that the organization fully supports pursuing state legislation modeled after the Massachusetts law.

Clegg urged councilors, however, not to “shut the door” on exploring a local ordinance because the odds of a state law passing depend on the outcome of this November’s legislative and gubernatorial elections. U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, the Democrat running for governor, and independent Eliot Cutler are both pro-abortion rights candidates while Republican Gov. Paul LePage is anti-abortion.

“Realistically, the potential success of a state remedy is dependent upon the outcome of this November’s election and who resides at the Blaine House,” Clegg wrote in a memo to councilors.

 

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