New Jersey Abortion Clinic Buffer Zone Law Survives for Now

Englewood, N.J., is getting another chance to prove an ordinance barring protesters from coming within eight feet of a clinic where abortions are performed is constitutional.

Anti-abortion protester Jeryl Turco didn’t prove the city’s buffer zone law violated her First Amendment rights, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said Aug. 19. Turco must develop facts showing the law severely burdened her ability to communicate with people entering the clinic, the court said.

Englewood adopted the buffer zone in response to aggressive anti-abortion protests that regularly occurred outside of Metropolitan Medical Associates. The ordinance drew three overlapping zones ...