N.J. City Prevails in Abortion Protester’s Buffer Zone Challenge

An anti-abortion “sidewalk counselor” failed to revive her case against an Englewood, N.J., buffer zone ordinance that prevented her from coming within eight feet of a health-care clinic entrance.

The city didn’t violate Jeryl Turco’s First Amendment rights because the provision was sufficiently narrowly tailored to serve the government’s substantial and legitimate interest in protecting its citizens’ health and safety, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said Wednesday.

Turco, moreover, admitted that the ordinance hadn’t impeded her from spreading her anti-abortion message, Judge Jane R. Roth said in the unpublished opinion. The ...